Auction of the year: The Andy Vajna Collection! – PHOTOS

Andy Vajna, funeral, Hollywood, commemorate

Photo: Facebook.com/hessteg

Hungarian-born media mogul Andy Vajna died this January, and he left an enormous heritage behind. A fascinating collection of his personal belongings will be auctioned off in December, but everyone is welcome to take a look at it beforehand.

The Hungarian film producer and media mogul’s heritage is approximately 67 billion Hungarian Forints (204 million Euros) which he made from his work in the film industry and the many businesses he owned. He was the 18th richest Hungarian on Forbes’s list. He owned several television stations, radio channels, gambling institutions, commercials, estates and restaurants as well.

Now, thanks to his widow Tímea Vajna, a collection of his personal belongings are going to be auctioned off for a good cause, Index reports. The auction will take place at Nagyházi Gallery and Auction House on 7 December, but until then, those interested can take a look at the exhibition of his belongings every day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Andy Vajna collection consists of 225 objects, and a portion of the profits goes to the Centre for Pediatric Cardiology, Gottsegen György Hungarian Institute of Cardiology.

There are a variety of items in the collection, including photographs signed by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, furniture, posters, movie relics and ornaments. There is also an original Munkácsy artwork worth 28 million Forints (appr. 83,000 Euros), and Vajna’s Bentley Cabrio is on this list too.

Photo: MTI/Illyés Tibor

Andy Vajna was born in 1944 in Hungary. His family moved the United States with the big emigration wave of 1956. He studied at the University of California Los Angeles and started working at the university’s Educational Motion Picture Department. Later he set up his own photo studio before establishing his own wig manufacturing company and operating cinemas in Hong Kong.

Vajna produced 59 films in all, including the Evita starring Madonna and Sylvester Stallone’s first three Rambo films. He is mostly known for the movies he produced and for the different media projects he took part in. Among others, he played an essential role in the careers of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but Bruce Willis and Antonio Banderas can also be quite grateful to him. He later managed to profit from his network in Hungary, and never forgot about his roots and Budapest in Hollywood. The most significant success of the Hungarian National Film Fund created by Vajna was definitely Son of Saul.