ORSON WELLES - CITIZEN KANE OSCAR GOES UNDER HAMMER

CITIZEN KANE OSCAR GOES UNDER HAMMER

ORSON WELLES' Oscar for the 1941 classic CITIZEN KANE is expected to fetch up to $1.2 million (GBP600,000) when it goes under the hammer on Tuesday (11Dec07). The award, for best original screenplay, will be auctioned together with Welles' personal working copy of the script at Sotheby's in New York. The 156-page script is expected to bring in another $120,000 (GBP60,000). The Oscar was believed to have been lost until it turned up at a 1994 Sotheby's auction. A Los Angeles cinematographer had held it in secret, after being given it by Welles as payment for working with him. After a lengthy legal battle, the gong was returned to the Welles estate, which then sold it to the Dax Foundation - a Los Angeles-based charitable foundation which is now putting the Oscar up for auction - in 2003. All of the proceeds will help fund the organisation's worldwide humanitarian efforts.