'Golden Girls' gold-digging: Blockbuster auction of Estelle Getty's sitcom stuff

Poor Bea Arthur has only just left us, but the nostalgia for The Golden Girls may be eternal.

Bonhams & Butterfields, a fine art auction house that regularly hosts Hollywood-themed sales, has announced it will be hocking the personal effects of Estelle Getty, who played wisecracking Sophia Petrillo, the mother of Beatrice Arthur's character Dorothy Zbornak.

The star of the sale is bound to be the straw handbag she clutched in nearly every scene of the show, but there are some other iconic lots on sale, too, including her giant eyeglasses (I wonder if Larry King will bid) and a bathrobe stitched with "Sophia" on the back. More of Getty's stuff will be sold in an estate sale on May 17 and a jewelry sale on June 16. The main sale previews on June 12 in Los Angeles, and the hammer comes down on June 14. Getty died last July at 84, Arthur died April 26 at 86 (yep, Getty was younger even though she played her mom).

It certainly makes up for the cancellation of the blowout auction of Michael Jackson's effects. It also speaks of the times we live in. Jacko's out; Sophia is forever.