Holy Nipple Suit! George Clooney's Batman & Robin costume is up for auction with a starting bid of $40,000
George Clooney's nipple suit from Batman & Robin goes up for auction, but be prepared to pay the big bucks
It's been 25 years since Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin made its debut on the big screen to ridicule and mockery. Since then, it has slowly gained a cult status, especially among fans of camp and queered visual storytelling. At the center of both the mockery of the film and of its iconic look stands the infamous Batman costume (featuring prominent nipples) worn by George Clooney himself (and later criticized by him as well). This piece of Hollywood and Gotham history is soon to be up for public bidding at Heritage Auctions— with a starting bid of $40,000 (though if you include the buyer's premium, that means $50,000).
In case you have that sort of pocket change, or if you're like us, just very interested in the details of this iconic prop sale, the details that Heritage Auctions provides about the suit read:
"Original screen worn superhero costume display constructed of cast foam latex, vinyl, resin components, leather, and other mixed media elements. All expertly painted, finished, and assembled on a life-size poseable mannequin with hyper-realistic George Clooney head with prosthetic grade false eyes. Costume pieces include hero signature cowl, full length superhero cape with 2-cape clips, muscle tunic with signature "Batman" icon on the chest, muscled tights, peaked and finned gauntlet gloves, and knee-high character boots. The cowl and cape are both marked "GC" for George Clooney and originally came from the Warner Bros. Archives. The body suit is a stunt suit and the "bat" emblem and cape fasteners were created from originals to complete the display."
This Batman costume was originally designed by Miles Teves and created by Jose Fernandez, who sculpted the pieces of the costume for Bob Ringwood, the uncredited designer, and Joel Schumacher.
This lot is set to go up for auction on July 17, 2022. If you're interested in placing a bid, but don't have 40k+ to spend, apart from the Batman costume and the even-more-pricey Jack Nicholson Joker costume, you can also bid on Danny DeVito's Penguin umbrella (starting big 3,000) or a Daily Planet newspaper prop from Superman II (starting bid 1,000).
Speaking of queer icons, check out Popverse's piece on Wonder Woman's queerness, and why Lynda Carter is right about it.
