Orson Welles ‘Citizen Kane’ Replacement Oscar Sells For $645,000, But Is It Legal?

[BluBonnet]

Orson Welles ‘Citizen Kane’ Replacement Oscar Sells For $645,000, But Is It Legal? Academy Says It Will Look Into Auction

The hammer just went down over the weekend on the one and only Oscar win for Citizen Kane, a 1941 movie many still consider the crown jewel of Hollywood, the greatest ever made.

In a Heritage Auctioneers “Hollywood Entertainment” auction that among many other items featured several from the career of Kane’s star, director and co-writer Orson Welles, the prize get was his 1941 Oscar for Original Screenplay that he shared with Herman Mankiewicz. Of the film’s nine nominations including Picture, Director and Actor for Welles, it was the single victory for the movie (How Green Was My Valley won Best Picture). The Welles statuette had a starting bid of $250,000 and sold to an unknown bidder for $645,000 (inclusive of buyer’s premium).

It, uh, gets a little complicated from there.

This is not the original Oscar statuette that Welles — who didn’t even attend the actual ceremony — won. It is instead a replacement that Welles’ daughter Beatrice asked the Academy for in 1988 since she claimed she couldn’t find the original in any of her father’s belongings. He died in 1985. The Academy complied and offered up the new statuette, but she was required to sign a release that stipulated it could not be sold without first offering it back to the Academy for one dollar. That has been the standard agreement implemented after 1950 that all Oscar winners must sign. It does not cover any Oscars won before then, and many have been sold or auctioned off.