Stanley Kubrick’s Personal Archive Is Going Up for Auction, Including the Ax From ‘The Shining’ and the Star Child From ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’

The legendary director’s on-set chair, annotated scripts and props give a glimpse into the meticulous moviemaking process behind films like “Full Metal Jacket” and “Eyes Wide Shut”

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

October 7, 2026 1:48 p.m.

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The fire ax that Jack Nicholson’s character used during his murderous rampage in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 classic The Shining is heading to auction, giving film fans a chance to own a prop from one of Hollywood’s most iconic horror movies.

The special effects weapon is expected to sell for up to $66,000 during an auction of Kubrick’s possessions later this year. Highlights from the American filmmaker’s personal archive—including objects from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, Barry Lyndon, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut—will be exhibited at Bonhams auction houses in New York, Los Angeles and Paris, before the auction takes place in London on February 3.

Nicholson wields the ax during a pivotal scene in The Shining, based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name. Playing Jack Torrance, a writer who drifts into insanity while staying with his wife and son at the Overlook Hotel, Nicholson uses the ax to kill the hotel’s head chef, Dick Hallorann, played by Scatman Crothers.

The prop is made from polyfoam covered in metalized sheeting and foil tape, giving it a metallic appearance. It also has no front blade. Instead, its head has two sharp-ended metal bolts, which were designed to rupture bags of fake blood concealed beneath Crothers’ coat. While shooting the movie’s only on-screen murder, Crothers wore a multi-layered chest shield made of foam, fiberglass and a steel plate to protect him from the force of Nicholson’s blows.

“The idea being when the ax hit him, it went through the coat, through the foam, through the fiberglass and the threads grabbed the fiberglass,” Alan Whibley, who led the special effects team that designed the ax, said in an interview for the 2023 book Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, according to the auction house. “The bolts were not deep enough to penetrate any more. The steel plate was for safety, but the rest was really to absorb the shock, because [Nicholson] didn’t pull any punches when he swung that axe.”

The production team had as many as 23 prop fire axes on set but created just three with bolts for the Hallorann death scene, according to Bonhams. One sold at auction earlier this year, while another is believed to be in the Warner Bros. archive. This particular ax was kept in Kubrick’s personal collection and has a few small spots of fake blood on the handle.

Beyond the ax, the sale includes other props and equipment from The Shining, including a clapperboard used during production and the frilly blue dresses, knee-high white socks and black patent leather shoes worn by the haunting, identical twin sisters who beckon Torrance’s son to “come play with us.”

Kubrick fans will also have a chance to bid on items from other films, including the 27-inch-long fiberglass baby from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The so-called “Star Baby,” which appears briefly at the end of the movie, is expected to sell for up to than $1.1 million.

“It is the final, enigmatic image of one of cinema’s most influential science fiction films,” Claire Tole-Moir, head of popular culture at Bonhams, tells the Guardian’s Matthew Weaver. “It represents evolution, new beginnings, naivety and ambiguity.”

Also going up for sale is a director’s chair Kubrick used throughout his career, featuring a pale green canvas seat and customized script boxes attached to each arm. Several annotated scripts and Kubrick’s chess set are also up for grabs. “During breaks in filming, he would play games with members of the cast and crew, and has often been photographed alongside a chess board,” Tole-Moir tells the Guardian.

Born in 1928 in the Bronx, Kubrick took an early interest in photography and, at 17, became a staff photographer for Look magazine. That experience helped him hone the visual style he later brought to films like The Killing, Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, and A Clockwork Orange.

Katharina Kubrick, the director’s stepdaughter, tells the Associated Press in a statement: “We are proud to be able to share with you some of the items from this unique collection, which we hope will find new homes and be cherished until it is time to pass them on to the next generation of film lovers.”

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.