In December 1960, a new Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II drophead coupe was delivered to The Pierre hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The left-hand drive configuration was one of only 20 ever built. The “smoke green” color was custom-made to match the recipient’s wedding dress. The customer, as noted on the original order form? “Mrs. Elizabeth Taylor Fisher.”
On Tuesday night, Elizabeth Taylor’s 1961 Rolls-Royce, nicknamed the “Green Goddess,” will be auctioned off at the same hotel where it was originally delivered, writes The New York Times. Guernsey’s, the auction house coordinating the sale, expects the Hollywood icon’s automobile to sell anywhere from $1 million to $2 million.
As you may have surmised from her name at the time, this Rolls-Royce wasn’t delivered to Taylor alone. She was married to singer Eddie Fisher, and a photo on Guernsey’s listing shows him in the driver’s seat and Taylor riding shotgun. While she owned the car, as the seller Karl Kardel told the Times, “I don’t think Elizabeth ever had a driver’s license.”
That didn’t stop the actor from bringing it with her across the world. While the listing says the Rolls has spent most of its time in California, it was shipped to Rome to accompany Taylor during the filming of Cleopatra.
Taylor owned the car for about 20 years before Kardel bought it for an undisclosed sum. “When I bought it, my friends thought I was an idiot,” he told the Times. But when the auction ends on Tuesday night, after in-person and online bidding, it will undoubtedly sell for far more than the price he originally paid.
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