Desmond's killer bid captures broadsword

The sword used by Mel Gibson in the Academy Award winning film Braveheart was purchased yesterday by Dublin-based financier Mr Dermot Desmond for $170,000 (€183,170) at Sotheby's in New York City. Mr Desmond would not comment on his plans for the 13th century replica broadsword, said Ms Gina Markey, a spokeswoman for Mr Desmond, from the offices of International Investment and Underwriting (IIU).

Mr Ross Desmond, Mr Desmond's son, paid $54,000 for the light sabre used by Liam Neeson, who played Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. The sabre was donated by the film's director, George Lucas.

Mr Desmond's bid was the highest offered on 15 movie memorabilia items auctioned in the charity Movie Action for Children, a live and Internet-based auction organized by Ms Maura Quinn, executive director of Unicef Ireland and Mr Neeson, the agency's special patron. The money raised will help prevent the spread of AIDS/HIV mother-to-child transmission in three African countries, said Ms Quinn. She said that once she had come up with the idea, Mr Neeson agreed to ask actors, directors and producers for items they'd used in various movies.

Iona Technologies contributed £500,000 (€634,869) to the project, which enabled the idea to get off the ground, said Ms Quinn. "We were looking for a global cause that reflected the multinational base of the Irish owned company," said executive chairman Dr Chris Horn, who attended the event.

The live auction raised $406,850.

Seventy-seven items were also auctioned online and bidding continued into the night. Items that went under the hammer of auctioneer Mr Jamie Niven, the son of David Niven, included the wrap-around "shades" U2's Bono wore in the video for Beautiful Day, which went for $3,250; Julia Roberts' wedding dress worn in the film Runaway Bride, which was purchased for $16,000; a white shirt worn by Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient, which was auctioned for $2,000; and the bullwhip used by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones trilogy. The Steven Spielberg gift sold for $70,000.

The money raised will help prevent the transmission of AIDS/HIV between mothers and their new-born children in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Ivory Coast, said Ms Quinn, where 30 per cent of pregnant women are infected with the disease.

Three quarters of their babies die by the age of five as a result of the infection being transmitted. The money will be used for purchasing Nevirapine, a drug that reduces mother to child transmission of the disease by about half.

Describing his company's donation as the largest charitable contribution the Dublinbased company has ever given to a charity, Dr Horn said he hoped the success of the new treatments for AIDS/HIV would encourage other governments to introduce their own treatment programmes.