Ironies of Various Kinds

TLS, November 29, 2013:

John Huston's film The Maltese Falcon (1941) stars Humphrey Bogart as Same Spade, a private dick on the trail of a "priceless" work of art, a golden jewel-encrusted falcon, formerly a tribute to Charles V of Spain and latterly the cause of several murders. Based on Dashiell Hammett's novel of 1930, this tangled story of duplicity and greed revolved around the ultimate Hollywood MacGuffin: the object of desire turns out to be worthless. Not so in real life. Despite a bent right-tail feather (the result of an accident during production), the "black bird" statuette was this week snapped up at a Bonham's sale in New York for £2.5 million.