The MacGuffin personified

According to the Seattle Times, the titular bird statuette featured in the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon recently sold for more than $4 million. The black figurine is "one of two known cast lead statuettes made for John Huston's screen version of the film but the only one confirmed by Warner Bros. archives as having appeared in it", and includes "a Warner Bros. inventory number etched into the base and bears the name of the movie". (Pro tip: If this is your ideal holiday gift for someone, but you don't even have four hundred dollars to waste on a foot-high bird statue, you can get really great replicas on eBay for, like, fifty bucks.)