Brando H-D sells for $256,000

Marlon Brando's 1969 model Harley-Davidson Electra Glide has been sold at auction in California for $US256,000, the equivalent of $A335,000.

The Harley-Davidson, purchased in 1970 by the two-time Academy Award-winning actor, was sold with 13,589 miles on the clock by Julien's—the self-described "auction house to the stars"—complete with the original State of California Department of Motor Vehicles Notice of Transfer from Los Angeles Harley-Davidson.

Other celebrity motorcycles which have recently sold at auction include the Jerry Lee Lewis Harley-Davidson ($US385,000) and Buddy Holly’s motorcycle ($US450,000).
According to Gizmag.com, the sale price for Brando's Electra Glide puts it comfortably inside the top 50 motorcycles ever sold at auction.

Brando, who was a motorcycle aficionado his whole life, passed away on July 1, 2004. He once said: “It still pleases me to be awake during the dark, early hours before morning when everyone else is still asleep. I’ve been that way since I first moved to New York. I do my best thinking and writing then. During those early years in New York, I often got on my motorcycle in the middle of the night and went for a ride anyplace.

"There wasn’t much crime in the city then, and if you owned a motorcycle, you left it outside your apartment and in the morning it was still there. It was wonderful on summer nights to cruise around the city at one, two, three a.m. wearing jeans and just a t-shirt with a girl on the seat behind me. If I didn’t start out with one, I’d find one.”

Julien's also had a good weekend on a couple of other fronts, with Marilyn Monroe's "Something's got to give" dress selling for $US358,000—and her grave marker also fetched $US212,500! Princess Di also got a look in, with one of her Versace dresses selling for $US200,000.