A prop model of a child’s sled that explained the most famous mystery in cinema history is due to be sold at auction this summer.
Rosebud is the central device in Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece, for a long time considered the greatest artistic achievement in movies.
The film tells the story of Charles Foster Kane, a media and political powerhouse (probably based on US newspaper baron William Randolph Hears), using a cinema newsreel obituary of Kane as its framing.
On his death bed Kane forgot all his wealth and power to remember the childhood toy that was taken from him as he ascended to the elite. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Reporter Jerry Thompson (played by William Alland) must find out what Kane’s last word – “Rosebud” – meant.
The answer he sought but never found was that Rosebud was the sled Kane owned before his family came into money.
The Sled is shown being burned at the end of the film, and in flashbacks to Kane’s childhood. One of the props used on screen is now up for sale at Heritage Auctions Hollywood/Entertainment Signature auction, due to open later this month.
This is the third prop Rosebud sled from the film to come to light. It was owned by film director Joe Dante (Gremlins).
Welles reported that three sleds were made in balsa wood specifically to be burned at the end of the film, in a scene where the meaning of Rosebud is revealed to the audience.
One of these was three was not needed and was spared the flames. Steven Spielberg bought it at auction in 1982 for $60,500.
The sled also appears earlier in the film, when the young Kane plays on it in the snow around his family cabin, inside which the gold find that will change his life is being discussed.
The Rosebuds filmed for these scenes were made in more robust pine. One was given away in a fan competition by the film’s financers, RKO Pictures. It was won by Arthur Bauer, then a 12-year-old, who kept it for 50 years before selling it for $233,500 in 1996.
Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane. He co-wrote, produced and directed the film in which he starred. It was his first feature and was only 26 years old when it came out.
This sled is a “lost” Rosebud of the same type.
It was given to Joe Dante while he worked on the film Explorers in 1984.
Due for destruction in a studio clearance, the sled was offered to Dante, who immediately spotted what it was. Dante subsequently commissioned extensive authentication works including radiocarbon dating.
Heritage describe the sled as “arguably the most powerful symbol of cinematic storytelling from a film that defined the language of cinema,” and “one of the most significant film props in existence.”
Heritage have added their own certificated authentication to the item’s provenance.
It will be sold this July. No estimate or reserve has yet been released, but the price will surely be as weighty as the item itself.
Kane and Welles’ work are already among the most collectible in movie history: a poster made $57,500 in 2008; a suit worn in a single scene sold for $110,000 in 2013 and Oscars won by both Welles and his co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz have been auctioned for $861,542 and $588,455, respectively.
This iconic poster art for Apocalypse Now may rival the Rosebud for value at what looks like being a significant sale. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
It is listed alongside other significant pieces of Hollywood history including Bob Peak’s original art for the Apocalypse Now poster, an Indiana Jones whip, and a model X-Wing fighter from Star Wars.
Bidding on the sale is due to start around June 10.
