The Maltese Falcon's Titular Prop Is At The Center Of A Real Unsolved Mystery

John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" opens with an unsolved mystery. The introductory text talks about a prized statuette of a falcon encrusted in rare jewels — a gift from the Knights Templar to Spain's Charles V — which was stolen by pirates and lost to history for years. After a string of murders and attempts to swipe a black bird statuette occur, private investigator Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is compelled to crack a mind-boggling case involving rogues with their eyes on the prized artifact. This bird statue, dubbed the Maltese Falcon, has since evolved into an unforgettable MacGuffin, where the value of the actual prop skyrocketed over the years, changing several hands while being sold at auctions at exorbitant prices.

According to Vanity Fair's 2016 Hollywood issue, the last-known auction for the falcon was held in 2013, where the official bidding kept soaring until it hit the $3 million mark and was sold for $3.5 million. The buyer was real-estate developer/art collector Steve Wynn, and news of the sale received widespread media coverage back in the day. According to reports, the statue still sits at Wynn's Las Vegas villa among coveted pieces of art.

However, the tale of the Maltese Falcon does not end here, as several versions of the falcon have cropped up over the years, each rendition more bizarre than the one preceding it. Although Wynn's falcon is the one believed to be the original, claims of other "genuine" falcons (yes, there appears to be more than one) have contributed to the surreal, unsolved mystery surrounding the prized Hollywood prop. Let's dive into the strange journey of the many faces of the Maltese Falcon.

Per VF Hollywood's thorough investigation of the matter, entrepreneur Hank Risan claims that the two falcons he owns were the ones used in the film. Risan bought the twin falcons from a San Francisco illustrator in the late 1980s and film art experts deduced that those could be the same statue we see on screen. However, further investigation hinted that Risan's statues could be plaster copies of the "lead" bird in the film: backup props used by actors so that they didn't have to lug around a weighty statue while filming the scenes.

This is only a semi-informed guess, as the authenticity of Risan's falcon is contested by oral surgeon Gary Milan, who used to own a lead falcon that weighed 45 pounds, giving him reason to believe that all other falcons are mere replicas. The primary issue with deducing which falcons were actually used in Huston's 1941 crime noir is that several plaster copies of the falcon were made for a spoof sequel to "The Maltese Falcon," namely 1975's "The Black Bird." With too many plaster copies made from the statue mold of the original prop(s), it is impossible to confidently deduce which statues were used on which set, and meticulous cross-examination has only deepened the mystery surrounding the Maltese Falcon.

So, you must be wondering: who sold the Falcon that currently belongs to Steve Wynn? Well, it was none other than Milan, who claims that the bird was authenticated by a Warner Bros. archivist before it was auctioned. An official Warner Bros. press release mentions that the Falcon accidentally fell on Humphrey Bogart's foot during filming, which bent the prop's tail feathers. This detail lines up with Milan's bird, which is now Wynn's bird. But the story doesn't end here.

The VF investigation ends with an off-the-record statement from Warner Bros. representatives, who claim that "old-timers at the studio remain 99 percent certain the Milan Falcon was used in the 1941 film" as the bent tail feathers are proof of that. When furnished with Risan's research into whether his twin falcons were also used in the film, they stated that it is "impossible to prove or disprove any of these theories at this point," as the truth has been lost to history. Although plaster copies of the lead falcon were used for close-ups and publicity photos, there is no way to confidently state that Risan's falcons are among them. They could very well have been used in the 1975 spoof film, or not at all.

The final expert weighing in on the matter is props appraiser Laura Woolley, who told VF that she is baffled by the idea of actors using a lead bird in the first place:

"I don't understand why anyone would make a lead bird [...] But Warner believes in it. Gary [Milan] believes in it. So it's kind of become the official bird [...] [Lead] only makes sense if you wanted something that appears very heavy. If it's supposedly something that contains treasure inside, you should be holding it as something quite weighty, and that's the only reason you could ever do it in lead. Maybe they dropped it on Bogart's toe and went to plaster instead. Who knows?"

Well, nobody knows. There's yet another version of the falcon (also made of lead with bronze patinas) that was gifted to William Conrad by Warner Bros. during the 1960s. Is this yet another replica made from the original mold? The mystery remains unsolved.