'Casablanca' piano coming to NYC auction

11/27/2012
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK  — The piano used for the song “As Times Goes By” in the classic 1942 film “Casablanca” is getting another turn at fame.

The instrument is going up for sale at Sotheby's in New York on Dec. 14, and the auction house estimates it'll fetch up to $1.2 million.

It's being offered by a Japanese collector on the film's 70th anniversary.

The collector purchased the movie prop at a Sotheby's auction in 1988 for $154,000.

Humphrey Bogart played Rick Blaine in the Oscar-winning World War II love story, opposite Ingrid Bergman's character, Ilsa Lund.

In a famous flashback scene, Rick and Ilsa lean on the piano at a Paris bistro. Sam, played by Dooley Wilson, plays and sings.

They toast as Rick says: “Here's looking at you, kid.”