Citizen Kane’s Oscar to be auctioned

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

The Oscar statuette given to Orson Welles for his critically-acclaimed masterpiece “Citizen Kane” is being sold at auction this month, organizers said on Dec. 12.

Bids for the slightly-tarnished golden Oscar for 1941 best screenplay, worth an estimated $1 million, will end on Dec. 20, said Los Angeles auctioneer Nate D Sanders.

The statuette failed to find a buyer when offered for sale in New York four years ago, but auctioneers are confident in the interest for the iconic movie’s illustrious prize.

Orson Welles’s Oscar was awarded for the best screenplay, and incredibly, it’s the only Oscar that ‘Citizen Kane’ received,” said Sanders.

Despite some tarnishing on the legs, the Oscar is “overall in very good condition,” he said, calling it “a spectacular tribute to the visionary director and screenwriter, Orson Welles, and to the film he brought to life.”

The history of the statuette has included some hazy spells: Welles believed he had lost it, but it resurfaced after he died in 1985, and was bequeathed to his daughter Beatrice in 1994.

In 2002 she won a legal case against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences giving her the right to sell it. During that court case the statuette was valued at $1 million, Sanders said.

The Oscar was offered for sale at Sotheby’s in New York in December 2007, but failed to find a buyer. It was then being sold by a US charitable foundation, which acquired the golden statuette from the Welles estate.

The statuette, 12 inches tall is being sold from a private collection, Sanders said, adding that the winning bidder will also be given a complete chain of ownership record.