James Bond outguns Darth Vader at auction

London   A pistol used in a publicity shot for the James Bond film From Russia With Love sold for £277,250 (Dh1.35 million) at a London auction on Thursday, around 15 times its pre-sale estimate.

The result partly made up for disappointment at Christie's auction house when a rare Darth Vader costume, expected to fetch between £160,000 and £230,000, failed to sell.

The weapon was a Walther air pistol which Bond actor Sean Connery held in a photo-shoot used for the main image in the poster and advertising campaign for the 1963 movie.

It had been priced at between £15-£20,000 before the pop culture sale, and the last time it went under the hammer was in 2001 when it sold for £14,100.

The Darth Vader costume was believed to have been from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back film.