• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 5 hours ago

Items once owned by Matthew Perry that are now up for auction reveal aspects of the private, inner life of the beloved “Friends” star who died in October 2023 at age 54.

He apparently drowned in his home Jacuzzi while under the influence of ketamine. The manner of his death shined a spotlight on his lifelong struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

But Matthew Perry was much more than an addict. Everyone knew him as one of the six stars of “Friends,” an ensemble that was one of the best ever assembled for a network comedy series.

Everyone loved the character he played, the well-meaning and affable Chandler Bing, and when Perry died, millions knew they had lost a friend.

Now, there is an opportunity to own belongings and keepsakes left by Perry that reflect his many interests.

An auction of 130 of Perry's personal belongings was announced earlier this week by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

The lots up for auction reveal the actor's diverse interests in art, movies, children's books, ice hockey, Batman and of course, the TV show that made him a star, “Friends.”

“Friends” memorabilia abounds in the auction catalogue -- from show scripts to photos, both personal and promotional (such as the photo above of the “Friends” cast).

The scripts include one for the show’s pilot episode in 1994 and another for the series finale in 2004 -- both signed by all six of the show’s stars.

The items on view on the Heritage Auctions website reveal Perry's love of movies, in particular the comedies of Woody Allen.

Perry owned original posters for five Woody Allen movies -- “Annie Hall,” “Broadway Danny Rose,” “Manhattan,” “Husbands and Wives” and “Love and Death.”

His poster collection reveals a wide range of movie tastes. The collection includes posters for “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), the poignant Billy Wilder-Jack Lemmon comedy “The Apartment” (1960), the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “North By Northwest” (1959), “Rocky” (1976, signed by Sylvester Stallone) and posters of some of his own movies, including “Three To Tango,” “Fools Rush In” and “The Whole Nine Yards” with Bruce Willis.

The list of items up for auction includes about two dozen Batman movie collectibles. Some are one-of-a-kind and others appear to have been made in limited quantities.

One category of items up for auction is a striking art collection of contemporary paintings and prints.

The most valuable of them by far is a 2005 painting by the enigmatic British artist Banksy, titled “Girl with Balloon (diptych),” for which bidding starts at $400,000.

A screenprint of another Banksy work -- “Nola (Grey Rain)” from 2008 -- already has a $20,000 bid on it.

The auction house is allowing so-called preliminary, “proxy” bids on its website in advance of the auction scheduled for June 5, to be conducted in-person and online.

Other artists represented in Perry's collection include collagist Greg Miller, painters Rob Pruitt, Mel Bochner, Ivo Vergara and at least a dozen others.

The art collection includes a coveted Al Hirschfeld drawing of the “Friends” cast signed by Hirschfeld.

One of the items for sale must have had personal resonance for Perry. It is a framed, illustrated medical print produced in 1916 that shows the physical effects of alcohol on the human body.

The Perry estate sale is being billed as a charity auction, with all proceeds going to The Matthew Perry Foundation, which supports addiction education and recovery programs for addicts.

Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions