It is billed as the best pop culture collection ever assembled, ranging from the gun used to kill the assassin of President John F. Kennedy to the Wicked Witch of the West's hat from "The Wizard of Oz”.

Collected over the past 25 years by South Florida property developer Anthony Pugliese, the collection, which also includes a whip and the holy grail from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, will be put up for auction next month in Las Vegas.

Arlan Ettinger, president of New York-based auction house Guernsey's, said the collection of 850 lots could fetch more than $5 million when it goes under the hammer at The Palms Resort and Casino on March 15 and 16. "This collection is as good as it gets”, said Ettinger, with "The Maltese Falcon" resin statuette sitting on his desk alongside the gun used to kill Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and the "Braveheart" sword from the Oscar-winning film.

"Most collections have one or two great things and then things trail off from there”, he said. "This collection, there would have to be 100 items here, any one of which would be a star attraction anywhere else”.