Russell Crowe denies wearing the armour from “Gladiator” offered at auction

Russell Crowe has denied that he wore in "Gladiator" the armour of General Maximus now on show at the British Film Institute and soon to be sold at auction. And although the armour the actor supposedly wore in the opening scenes of "Gladiator" is valued at tens of thousands of dollars, Crowe has said that the complete set of his character's equipment now belongs to him. So it is likely that what goes under the hammer at the Pop Store auction on 30 September or 1 October will be armour made for the shoot but never worn by Russell. This is perfectly normal practice: costumes are made in several copies, and the armour in question was produced in multiple sets for each double and stuntman, plus one for the lead actor himself, in pristine and in blood-stained versions. In all, according to the costumiers, some forty copies of Maximus's various suits of armour were made for different scenes of the film, including dozens of sets of plain "leather-look" armour for when he fought in the arena as a gladiator.