Entertainment

Suit signed by A-listers goes on show ahead of auction

Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the stars who have added their names.
Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the stars who have added their names.

A suit signed by some of the world’s biggest stars is on show ahead of its auction.

Costume designer and triple Oscar-winner Sandy Powell asked A-listers to sign the suit to raise funds for a campaign to save late artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman’s cottage.

She approached stars at the 2020 Critics’ Circle, Bafta and Oscar ceremonies.

Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Sir Elton John and Joaquin Phoenix were among those who obliged.

Other names include Parasite filmmaker Bong Joon Ho and actresses Laura Dern and Saoirse Ronan.

The suit will be sold by the Phillips auction house to raise funds for Art Fund’s appeal to save and preserve Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent, “for the nation”.

Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent
Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA)

So far, more than £2.6 million has been raised of the £3.5 million total needed by March 31.

Jarman was a close friend and mentor to Powell, who started her career working as the costume designer on his 1986 film Caravaggio.

Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar said: “Sandy Powell’s idea of auctioning a star-signed suit, made possible by Phillips, is a brilliant, beautiful gesture, propelling us further towards our important target and its challenging deadline.”

Jarman died in 1994, aged 52, from Aids-related complications.

The online auction runs until 5pm on March 11. The suit is on display at Phillips Berkeley Square, London.