James Bond Stars in Dewey Art Auction

James Bond may get to live twice, but law firms, alas, only go around once.

That’s why dozens of collectors, movie fans and even a few lawyers were assembled Friday morning on the second floor of Adam A. Weschler & Son Inc. in Washington, D.C., for an auction of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s vintage film posters and fine art.

The auction, which included more than 60 rare movie posters plus another 50 oil paintings and other works of art, brought in more than $100,000 for the failed law firm’s creditors.

The big winners were the Italian poster for the 1967 Bond film “You Only Live Twice,” which sold for $2,600, the French poster for Rudolph Valentino’s 1926 silent classic “Son of the Sheikh” ($2,200) and Lucille Ball’s 1949 comedy “Miss Grant Takes Richmond” ($2,000).

Bradley Stevens’s “Twilight Reflections” sold for $5,500.

Among the 50 or so attendees were just a handful of Dewey alumni. Bankruptcy Beat talked to one former Dewey lawyer, Ryan Tyndall, now at Allen & Overy’s D.C. office.

Tyndall, bid on a few pieces Friday but got shut out. He did score Bruce Richards’s “Modern Living”—which depicts a house of cards that looks ready to collapse—for less than $1,000 at an earlier auction.

“It’s hanging in my house, to remind me of what can happen,” said Tyndall with a wry chuckle.

You can view all the items, along with the prices, each work fetched here.

Write to Patrick Fitzgerald at [email protected].