Orson Welles' Oscar Sells For $861K: 'Citizen Kane' Statue sold

LOS ANGELES — The Academy Award statuette that Orson Welles won for the original screenplay of "Citizen Kane" was auctioned for more than $861,000 Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Nate D. Sanders Auctions spokesman Sam Heller said bidders from around the world, including David Copperfield, vied for the Oscar.

The 1942 Oscar was thought to be lost for decades. It surfaced in 1994 when cinematographer Gary Graver tried to sell it. The sale was stopped by Beatrice Welles, Orson's youngest daughter and sole heir.

Copperfield, who was outbid in the auction, said he admires Welles not only for his cinematic successes, but because he, too, was a magician. Welles hosted Copperfield's first television special.

The auction house declined to release the highest bidder's name. It said only a handful of Academy Awards have sold for nearly a million dollars.

Michael Jackson paid $1.54 million in 1999 for the best picture Oscar awarded to David O. Selznick for "Gone With The Wind."

Comments

[Diana Scrimger]

11:31 AM on 12/22/2011

The rightful heir to Orson Well's Oscar should be his daughter. Yet why would the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences even permit the Oscar to be sold when there is an rightful heir to keep the Oscar. Should't the Oscar go back to the Academy instead of being sold? We would like to see Oscar Well's Oscar end up in the right hands instead of someones that is just wanting to buy an Oscar to flaunt it when they never earned one! Hopefully the Chinese Government did not purchase the Oscar earned by Orson Well's. That would certainly be the wrong hands to get to have an Oscar. They never earned one!

[LMPE]

11:25 PM on 12/21/2011

Shouldn't there be a museum dedicated to Orson Welles where they can keep the Oscar?

[arianaart]

10:02 PM on 12/21/2011

Orson Welles was brilliant.
Daughter Beatrice had an ongoing lawsuit over the rights to the Oscar he earned.

[Zweiback]

07:08 PM on 12/21/2011

Reportedly, Welles' favorite magic trick was making a German chocolate cake disappear.

[MichaelMcKLA]

02:30 AM on 12/23/2011

It went straight to his belly. So to speak. LOL

[vinnie605]

07:01 PM on 12/21/2011

Funny fact is that it only costs $90.00 to make an academy Award...go figure.!!

[lw1]

07:04 PM on 12/21/2011

It takes much, much more to win one.

[mlaiuppa]

06:35 PM on 12/21/2011

I thought Oscars couldn't be sold but had to go back to the Academy.

[MichaelMcKLA]

02:30 AM on 12/23/2011

That came along to stop Oscar selling. A fairly recent development.

[gungavin]

06:27 PM on 12/21/2011

Interesting side story concerning Orson Welles and money. ( this irony is too much ) In his later years, he had many money problems with cash flow for a number of projects he had in the fire. He went to many of the Hollywood celebs asking for cash. One of them was fellow, successful director, Steven Spielberg, who readily turned him down on his request. This same Spielberg had spent $50,000 to purchase the very famous sled, 'Rosebud' from Citizen Cane. Whoever said, 'life's not fair', surely knew what he was talking about. Sorry, Steven, but that makes you one big clown in my eyes, babe!

[Andre Darling]

04:58 PM on 12/21/2011

No disrespect to Orson Welles, but what could the person who paid 800 thousand dollars for this little statue have done to help the homeless, create jobs, or invest in scientific research?

[mlaiuppa]

06:36 PM on 12/21/2011

1%ers don't create jobs or feed people.

They buy little tchatchkes to display in one of their many mansions, add to their vast collections of expensive stuff and basically spend money on themselves.

[robodawa]

02:31 PM on 12/21/2011

If they needed it, I hope his family got all the money.

[GeeBee]

02:08 PM on 12/21/2011

Interesting to know Welles was a magician. It's amazing sometimes the little side stories that come up about people we only know from one field of work.

[summerwind08234]

12:15 PM on 12/21/2011

People can't even afford christmas gifts and someone can spend 861,000K on that, just dumb and wasteful in my opinion.

[VinnyButch]

12:04 PM on 12/21/2011

I thought it was against Academy rules to sell an Oscar.

[JhNyc]

12:12 PM on 12/23/2011

Oscar winners before 1951 weren't required to sign an agreement not to sell their awards.

[baxtron]

09:46 AM on 12/21/2011

does Herman Meinkiewicz family get half of that money? he was the one hanging in Hearst's inner circle.

[calidreamer]

08:05 AM on 12/21/2011

this doesn't surprise me in the Slightest that is one of the greatest films ever made. Welles was the first of the six leads in Long Hot Summer to be nominated for and win an oscar 3 of the other five never won correct Angela Landsbury was nominated for best supporting actress in 1945 1946 & 1962 never winning Anthony Franciosa was nominated for best actor in 1958 lost to sir Alec Guiness & Lee Remick was nominated for best actress in 1963 but Anne Bancroft won leaving the two winning leads in that film being Joanne Woodward & Paul Newman the last married couple to have both won leading acting oscars she won best actress March 26th 1958 for the Thress Faces Of Eve & Paul won best actor for The Color Of Money March 30th 1987 his seventh nomination in the catagory he received one more in 1995 a best supporting actor nod in 2003 and best picture nom in 1969 for Rachel Rachel

[brunettemba]

09:46 AM on 12/21/2011

There was one period in that sentence. Interesting post, but it made me dizzy.

[jaydonovan]

08:04 AM on 12/21/2011

I got this image in my head of Edward G. Robinson in the "Ten Commandments" making that golden calf. Paying that much for a statue is idolatry at its best. Orson should descend from the heavens, Rosebud held in his arms like wooden tablets, and crash the sled over the head of the lucky buyer.
All in black and white of course.