'Play it, Sam;' 'Casablanca' piano sells for $602,500 at auction

NEW YORK (AP) – The piano used for the song As Times Goes By in the classic 1942 film Casablanca has fetched more than $600,000 at auction.

The 58-key upright was sold to an unidentified buyer for $602,500 at Sotheby's New York on Friday.

Its presale estimate was up to $1.2 million.

It was 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.”

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More than

Online: www.sothebys.com

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AP-WF-12-14-12 1846GMT