ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

TEN COMMANDMENTS 'TABLETS' FETCH $60,000

AT MOVIE MEMORABILIA AUCTION

FAKE stone "tablets" brandished by Charlton Heston in the Hollywood blockbuster THE TEN COMMANDMENTS have sold in an auction of film memorabilia for $65,000.

The tablets, upon which the Commandments are written, are the most famous prop in the 1956 Oscar-winning film, in which Mr Heston played Moses.

The tablets are 23 inches tall and 12 inches wide and were originally "constructed of richly hewn fiberglass on wood backing," according to the auction brochure. The engraving on the props is an early Canaanite script that was practiced in the late Bronze Age.

The auction – called Drama, Action, Romance: The Hollywood Auction – took place at Calabasas Hills in California. The tablets were bought by an unnamed bidder for $60,000 (45,000 euros).

The auction brochure states that the props were made to look irregular and chipped as they were "carved" by divine fire.

It said: "These tablets were created by Paramount Studios' scenic artist A. J. Ciraolo who made them to be slightly irregular with molded chips, craters and dings since they were to be carved with God's 'fire bolts', and he painted them in great detail to appear as carved stone."

Mr Ciraolo kept the tablets following the production and removed the fiberglass from the props in order to display them on a plaque. They were sold with a letter of authenticity from the designer's family.