Roy's saddle fetches €460K

Roy Rogers’ silver, gold and ruby-studded saddle has been sold at auction for £287,000 (€466,674.39), as his family unloaded the screen cowboy’s prized possession to pay a Wild West-sized tax bill.

An anonymous bidder at the High Noon western memorabilia in Mesa, Arizona, took home the saddle, which was custom made in 1931, after paying the highest price ever for a saddle.

Another bidder ponied up £130,000 (€211,394.56) for matching chaps and gloves, and a third collector paid £42,000 (68,298.66 ) for Rogers’ silver spurs and boot tops.

Rogers’ heirs ran into tax trouble when the late cowboy actor’s wife and longtime leading lady, Dale Evans, died last February. Rogers died in 1998.

Dusty Rogers, Roy and Dale’s son, said the family has to pay £8,350 (€13,578.42 a month in interest on unpaid inheritance taxes.

Other memorabilia sold at the auction included John Wayne’s jacket from the film True Grit, which sold for £7,650 (12,440.11 ).