Orson Welles 'Citizen Kane' Oscar

One Oscar for the greatest film

Citizen Kane premiered on May 1, 1941, at the Palace Theatre in New York, with a wider U.S. release on September 5. Released by RKO Radio Pictures, it was made under what is generally considered the greatest contract ever offered to a filmmaker, including final cut.

It went into the 14th Academy Awards with nine nominations and came away with one, for Best Original Screenplay, shared by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. Best Picture went to How Green Was My Valley. The ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope at the Biltmore Bowl in Los Angeles on February 26, 1942, is now remembered as the year Citizen Kane lost. Welles did not attend.

The film had cost $839,727 and did not recoup its budget on first release; newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst prohibited any mention of it in his papers. Its reputation grew later: it sat at No. 1 in the Sight and Sound critics' poll for 50 years, from 1962 to 2002, and topped the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies list in 1998 and 2007.

Orson Welles

George Orson Welles was born May 6, 1915, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds on October 30, 1938, made him instantly famous, and in August 1939 he signed with RKO, the deal that led to Citizen Kane. He was in his mid-twenties when the film came out.

He married the actress Paola Mori in 1955 and had three children, including a daughter, Beatrice. Welles died in Los Angeles on October 10, 1985, at 70. His habit of treating the Oscar as just another object is what set its story in motion.

A prop, a storage unit and three courtrooms

In 1974 Welles used the statuette as a prop in his film The Other Side of the Wind. When shooting wrapped, he handed it to the cinematographer, Gary Graver, and said, 'Here, keep this.' Graver put it in storage and, after Welles died in 1985, did not tell the family he had it.

Paola Mori died in 1986 and Beatrice Welles inherited the estate. Believing the Oscar lost, she asked the Academy for a replacement in 1988. The Academy supplied one, and she signed an agreement not to sell it without first offering it back to the Academy for $1.

The original surfaced in 1994, when Graver sold it to a company called Bay Holdings for $50,000, which arranged to auction it with a $250,000 minimum bid. The auction house contacted Beatrice Welles, and she sued Graver and Bay Holdings. A California court found Welles had not intended a permanent gift and awarded her the statuette; accounts date the ruling to 1994 or 1995.

In 2001, facing financial trouble, she tried to sell it. The Academy claimed rights to the statuette and lost: its 1988 agreement covered only the replacement, and the court rejected its argument that the resale addendum applied to pre-1950 Oscars held by non-members. The Oscar was valued at $1 million during the proceedings. The Dax Foundation, a Los Angeles charity, acquired it in 2003 and offered it at auction in New York in December 2007, where it was withdrawn after bidding failed to meet an undisclosed reserve.

It finally sold at auction, with bidding closing on December 20, 2011, for $861,542 to an anonymous buyer.

Why this Oscar could change hands

Since 1950 the Academy has required winners to sign an agreement restricting resale of their statuettes. Welles won in 1942 and never signed it, which is why his original could be sold on the open market when most later Oscars cannot.

There are two Welles Citizen Kane statuettes. The replacement issued to Beatrice Welles in 1988 carried the $1 buy-back agreement. It nonetheless sold at auction in 2023 for $645,000; the winning bidder listed it for $967,000 and the Academy reportedly looked into the sale. That is a different object from the original sold in 2011.

The statuette's place in film history is what makes it rare: it is the only Academy Award Citizen Kane won, for a film that later topped the most famous critics' polls for half a century.

The numbers

Ceremony

14th Academy Awards, February 26, 1942, host Bob Hope

Citizen Kane nominations

9 nominations, 1 win (Best Original Screenplay)

Best Picture that year

How Green Was My Valley

Budget

$839,727; did not recoup on first release

Critics' standing

No. 1 in Sight and Sound poll 1962-2002; No. 1 on AFI 100 Years...100 Movies (1998, 2007)

Timeline

1. May 6, 1915

   Orson Welles is born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

2. Aug 1939

   Welles signs with RKO, with final cut.

3. May 1, 1941

   Citizen Kane premieres at the Palace Theatre in New York.

4. Feb 26, 1942

   Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz win Best Original Screenplay; Welles is not present.

5. 1950

   The Academy begins requiring winners to sign resale restriction agreements.

6. 1974

   Welles uses the Oscar as a prop, then hands it to cinematographer Gary Graver.

7. Oct 10, 1985

   Welles dies in Los Angeles.

8. 1986

   Paola Mori dies; Beatrice Welles inherits the estate.

9. 1988

   The Academy issues Beatrice Welles a replacement statuette.

10. 1994

    Graver sells the original to Bay Holdings for $50,000; Beatrice Welles sues and wins it back.

11. 2001

    Beatrice Welles tries to sell the Oscar; the Academy challenges her and loses.

12. 2003

    The Dax Foundation acquires the Oscar.

13. Dec 2007

    Offered at auction in New York; withdrawn after failing to meet reserve.

14. Dec 20, 2011

    Sells at auction for $861,542.

15. 2023

    The 1988 replacement statuette sells separately for $645,000.

The world in 1942

• Jan 16, 1942

  Carole Lombard dies in a plane crash near Las Vegas after a war bond tour.

• Jan 26, 1942

  American forces land in Northern Ireland, their first arrival in Europe.

• Feb 19, 1942

  President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, leading to Japanese American internment.

• Feb 25, 1942

  The 'Battle of Los Angeles': over 1,400 antiaircraft shells are fired at an unidentified object.

• May 15, 1942

  Congress approves the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps.

• Jun 4, 1942

  The Battle of Midway begins; the U.S. Navy defeats the Japanese attack.

• Jun 13, 1942

  The Office of Strategic Services is created.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Orson Welles 'Citizen Kane' Oscar is number 74 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (73 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Welles handed the Oscar to his cinematographer with three words: 'Here, keep this.'
• The statuette spent time as a movie prop in The Other Side of the Wind.
• The 14th Academy Awards were briefly canceled after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Citizen Kane lost Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley.
• There are two Welles Kane Oscars: the original and a 1988 replacement, which sold for $645,000 in 2023.
• A charity owned the statuette when it finally sold in 2011.