Nearly three years after the death of Matthew Perry, fans have the chance to own a piece of his legacy through a charity auction of his personal belongings. Signed Friends scripts, a handwritten letter from Jennifer Aniston, an original Banksy, and a worn-in leather wallet, complete with the actor’s AmEx and SAG-AFTRA membership card, are among the items up for sale. The auction, which will be held on Friday 5 June by Heritage Auctions, will benefit the Matthew Perry Foundation, a nonprofit that was set up in his name to support people living with addiction – a cause that was profoundly close to his heart, and to which he dedicated much of his time and energy in his lifetime. Perry was 54 years old when he was found dead in a hot tub at his Hollywood home in October 2023 – the end of a life that was marked tragically and catastrophically by alcohol and drug addiction. The medical examiner determined Perry’s cause of death to be the acute effects of ketamine; the woman who provided the drugs – known as the “ketamine queen” – was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison.“Matthew believed addiction should be met with compassion and science, not stigma and silence,” Lisa Kasteler Calio, chief executive of the Matthew Perry Foundation, said. “This auction fuels the Foundation’s work to expand access to evidence-based care and confront stigma. It is one more way we ensure that no one has to fight this disease alone.”Currently, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon is the item predicted to fetch the most with an estimated price of more than $800,000 – followed by several other artworks and scripts of Friends episodes, including a signed copy of the 2004 finale, which has a current bid of $26,000 but is expected to go for much more on Friday. Among the 130 lots of Perry’s personal effects, there are some that feel particularly significant, whether they speak to his legacy as a comedian or his unplumbed depths as a different sort of actor; his love of music or how cherished he was as a friend. Together, they create a portrait of a man that is perhaps closer to how Perry wanted to be remembered. Lot 14044: Letter from Jennifer Aniston(Heritage Auctions)Perhaps the most emotional and revealing of items is a handwritten letter from his longtime co-star and friend Jennifer Aniston addressed effusively to: “Matty!!!!!” Given the tragedy clouding Perry’s later years, it is easy to forget how much joy the actor brought to his fans, not to mention his friends, and so it is with a smile that one reads Aniston’s words: “Oh my… How am I going to live without your light in my life on a daily basis?” As a letter, it is a written testament to their friendship, evidently strong enough to acknowledge Perry’s issues: “I know that light has been dimmed at times and there were moments I was so scared it was going to go out all together. You have always come back. I so thank you for choosing to live this life.” Alongside Aniston’s words is a typed-out poem that speaks of “keeping the faith “ and “beginning again”. Lot 14094: The Velveteen RabbitWatch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.(Heritage Auctions)Any Friends fan will recognise the significance of Perry owning a copy of Morgery Williams’ The Velveteen Rabbit. The whimsical children’s tale about love, loss and what it means to be “real” memorably featured in a season four episode when Chandler buys a first edition of the book for Kathy, his crush, and Joey’s girlfriend, on her birthday. He lets Joey take the credit in a rare moment of selflessness for a character that could be (hilariously) selfish. The lovable leporine makes another appearance two seasons later when Chandler dresses up as a buck-toothed bunny for Halloween. Together with the book, in the same auction lot, is a raggedy stuffed rabbit from Perry’s childhood. Lot #1405: The West Wing Tapes(Heritage Auctions)In his lifetime and in his death, Matthew Perry will be remembered first and foremost for Chandler Bing, the sarcastic straight-shooter he played in Friends – but a guest role on The West Wing showed fans another side of the actor as a superb dramatic performer. Perry, who had himself been a longtime fan of the series, played ace lawyer Joe Quincy in just three episodes of Aaron Sorkin’s award-winning political drama, but his performance was indelible: sharp and expertly calibrated. He earned two Emmy nods for the part – and who knows what sort of roles could have followed in different circumstances? The West Wing cassettes on auction, then, point not to the life Perry lived, but to a future that could have been. Multiple lots: Portraits of Matthew Perry(Heritage Auctions)Amid the many artworks available in the auction – including a Banksy expected to fetch more than $800,000 – there are several portraits of Perry himself. An oil painting (Lot #14030) by an unknown American artist sees the actor smiling head in hand against a blue backdrop. Another work (Lot #14031) sees Perry rendered in full detail with charcoal and graphite. Lot #14117 includes a framed black-and-white photograph, labelled 1/1, of Perry, silhouetted against a pool backdrop, while Lot #14119 features a compilation of childhood photographs of the actor, playing baseball and dress-up. Taken together these works feel like an antidote to the deluge of paparazzi pictures that dogged Perry in his lifetime, particularly in his lows. These portraits and photographs, all of which he chose to keep, feel more in line with the man that he would want the world to remember. Multiple lots: Friends scripts(Heritage Auctions)Predictably, there is plenty of Friends memorabilia up for grabs in this auction, but perhaps the most coveted is a script of the show’s final episode, signed by Perry and his five co-stars. The yellow pages are no doubt a slice of pop culture history – and its current bid of $26,000 serves as proof of how much the show meant to the 52.5 million in the US alone who tuned in to watch their final farewell back in 2004. On a personal note for Perry, the show was a lifeline – his co-stars, he wrote in his memoir, were like “penguins” who propped him up during his struggle with addiction. “The best job in the entire world,” he once said of Friends. Lot #14101: Discman and Mix CDs(Heritage Auctions)They say that if you want to get to know someone, you should browse their music library. If that’s true, then the CD collection of Matthew Perry offers a rare insight into the man behind the actor. LCD Soundsystem, Jenny Owens, Lykke Li, and Port O’Brien all feature on a home-made CD titled “Matt’s Mix”, while another named “Serenade” spans Barenaked Ladies, Lenny Kravitz, U2 and Dido. It is not only the mixes made by Perry himself that offer a glimpse into who he was, but equally those compiled for him by his loved ones, such as a birthday mix made “.... as our amazing friend turns 40”. Multiple lots: Batman memorabilia(Heritage Auctions)Perry was nothing if not vocal about his fixation with Bob Kane’s caped crusader; he spent $20m on a 10,000 square-foot “mansion in the sky” complete with a “bat cave” to live out his Bruce Wayne fantasies, which he kitted out with many of the items now on auction including several figurines, a Batman-themed ping pong table, comic books, a mug, and movie tickets. He saw similarities between himself and the superhero, telling GQ: “Well, he’s a rich loner, we both drive black, cool cars. I don’t solve crime. But I’ve saved people’s lives.” The actor dedicated much of his life to helping others overcome addiction through sponsoring, and running his own sober-living facility Perry House. He even had a movie idea that he passionately shopped around to producers, in which an actor made Matt – whose life is a bit of a mess – uses a $2bn inheritance to become a superhero. In the days leading up to his death, the actor shared several social media posts signing off as Mattman; his last public words were: “I’m Mattman.”