USA/FILE: Orson Welles' Oscar for "Citizen Kane" to go up for auction

Record ID: 176102

  • Title: USA/FILE: Orson Welles' Oscar for "Citizen Kane" to go up for auction
  • Date: 17th October 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEE DUNBAR, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE COLLECTIBLES DEPARTMENT AT SOTHEBY'S SAYING: "Orson Welles supposedly either gave or lost in a poker game to somehow, the Oscar went ot one of his cinematographers and stayed with him for a number of years. Orson Welles' youngest daughter Beatrice Welles in the late 80s, petitioned the Academy to get a replacem
  • Embargoed: 1st November 2007 12:00
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  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVAD1WIS19D2J383F1ING4GCW5KM
  • Story Text: The Oscar statuette Orson Welles won for screenwriting "Citizen Kane," which is considered his best film, will go up for auction at Sotheby's next month, and is expected to fetch up to one million U.S.
    dollars It won only one Oscar, but Orson Welles' 1941 film "Citizen Kane" is widely considered his best movie. Now the Academy Award Welles received for his masterwork can be bought for a cool million -- or maybe more.
    Sotheby's senior vice president of Collectibles Lee Dunbar, says "The most comparable Oscar that's ever been sold to this is the David O.
    Selznick award for Best Picture for "Gone With the Wind," that was sold by Sotheby's back in 1999. That was estimated between 200-300 thousand U.S. dollars but it sold for 1.5 million (USD). Considering the great importance of this movie, and the fact that this is the only Oscar out of nine that was won by this movie, we feel that 800 thousand - 1.2 million (USD) is a very fair estimate."
    The movie, about a power-hungry newspaper baron with political aspirations, is one of the most critically acclaimed films of all time, which enhances the statuette's value, said Leila Dunbar, senior vice president at Sotheby's.
    Dunbar said the auction will be held on December 11th.
    The Oscar has almost as tangled a past as the film's protagonist, Charles Foster Kane. The award was believed to have been lost until it surfaced at another Sotheby's auction in 1994 after being held in secrecy by a Los Angeles cinematographer who once worked with Welles and received it from him as payment.
    Welles' youngest daughter, Beatrice, sued Sotheby's and the cinematographer and eventually claimed the Oscar. When she tried to sell it, the academy sued her as part of its long-standing goal of keeping Oscars off commercial markets.
    Since 1950, the academy has required Oscar-winners to give it the first right of refusal to buy back an Oscar for one U.S. dollar. Because this particular Oscar had been given before 1950, among other reasons, Welles was able to prevail in court.
    In 2003, Welles sold the Oscar to the Dax Foundation, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that supports various educational, health and other causes. Dax is auctioning the Oscar.
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