Academy Stops 'Kane' Auction

Orson Welles' 1942 Oscar for "Citizen Kane," the centerpiece of an auction of entertainment memorabilia, was withdrawn from the sale when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences exercised its right to buy it back for $1.

"The Oscar has been withdrawn" from the Friday sale, a spokeswoman for Christie's auction house, which had featured the Oscar on the cover of its auction catalog, told The New York Times in Tuesday editions.

Bruce Davis, the academy's executive director, said he was perplexed that the statuette had been scheduled for sale because "we have a letter from Christie's general counsel assuring us that the Oscar would not be offered for sale until the legal issues are resolved," the Times reported.

Since 1950, all Oscar recipients have had to sign an agreement giving the academy the first right of purchase, for the nominal fee of $1, for any Oscar offered for sale by an owner.

The academy evoked the agreement in the Christie's sale even though the Welles Oscar was won eight years before the agreement came into being.

Davis said Christie's had even called the academy "and asked is this one that we would object to or not."

The Oscar, among a large selection of Welles-related material that was estimated to sell at $300,000 to $400,000, was being sold by Beatrice Welles, the youngest of the filmmaker's three daughters and the sole heir of his estate.

For many years, it had been believed to be lost, and in 1988 Beatrice Welles requested a duplicate from the academy.

"We gave her a duplicate, and fortunately we also had her sign a version of the winner's agreement at that time, which also covered the original, should it ever surface," Davis told the Times.

The Oscar did surface, in 1994, at a Sotheby's auction in London. It had belonged to Gary Graver, a cinematographer who had worked with Welles and said he had received the statuette as a gift from the legendary filmmaker, who died in 1985.

Graver sold it in 1994 to the Bay Holdings company for $50,000. Bay Holdings later offered it for sale to Sotheby's, but when Beatrice Welles learned of its existence, she sued Graver and Bay Holdings, and won, stopping the sale.

Davis said it is easy to distinguish the original Welles Oscar from the duplicate.

The ones given out in 1941 had a Belgian marble base; beginning in 1950, the base was changed to spun brass and each statuette was given a serial number.