Original James Bond gun sells for £227,250

A fan has paid £227,250 ($439,000) in an auction for the original gun held by Sean Connery in the publicity shots for From Russia With Love.

The auction, which took place at Christie's auction house in the UK, featured a variety of classic character-related film items. In addition to the gun in question, the auction also put up a Darth Vader costume from the film The Empire Strikes Back.

The Darth Vader costume failed to sell, but the gun fetched over ten times what it was expected to earn. It was believed that the gun would sell for between £15,000 and £20,000.

The gun, which is actually only an air pistol, was used in all of Connery's publicity shots for the Bond movie.

A spokeswoman for Christie's said of the sale: "The Bond franchise has stood the test of time."