video transcript

The renowned Iwo Jima monument at the U.S. Marine Corps War memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Sculpted by Felix De Weldon in 1954 and inspired by a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. But the monument was not the original Iwo Jima statue. De Weldon's first version was created right after World War Two. It depicts the end of the battle for the small Japanese island of Iwo Jima. After a weeks-long assault, the American flag was raised in victory. Now the statue's owner, Rodney Hilton Brown, is selling it. SOUNDBITE: Rodney Hilton Brown, owner of monument, saying (English): "I'm 70 years old. It's been in a crate for eight years where nobody can see it and appreciate it. And you can see it's 18 feet long, it's 12 and a half feet tall without the flag, so it doesn't exactly fit in my living room." Brown discovered the statue half a century after its creation, while writing De Weldon's biography. SOUNDBITE: Rodney Hilton Brown, owner of monument, saying (English): "When people saw that picture of the flag raising, their attitude changed from remember Pearl Harbor to all together now. Let's finish the job." Dozens of other items are available in Bonhams' World War Two sale, but the star is undoubtedly de Weldon's 10,000-pound monument to victory.