Welles’ Citizen Kane Oscar sold

The Oscar won by Orson Welles for the original screenplay of Citizen Kane has sold for $861,542 (over £552,000) at auction.

By The Newsroom

Published 22nd Dec 2011, 00:14 BST

Bidders from around the world, including US magician David Copperfield, vied for the Oscar at the sale in Los Angeles, said a spokesman for Nate D Sanders Auctions.

The auction house, which declined to name the winning bidder, said only a handful of Academy Awards had sold for more than a million dollars. Michael Jackson paid $1.54m (£987,000) in 1999 for the best picture Oscar awarded to David O Selznick for Gone With The Wind.