Orson Welles' treasure set to auction by daughter

NEW YORK, NY — The late great director Orson Welles was the author of Citizen Kane, commonly considered the greatest film ever made. It's been almost 30 years after Orson Welles' death.

His daughter Beatrice Welles is making a trove of material related to her famous father. It was never before offered to the public and it is now available for auction, as part of Heritage Auctions' Entertainment Signature Auction.

There are more than 70 lots of Orson Welles-related ephemera, film memorabilia, clothing and personal accoutrements, including script pages and black and white film stills from Citizen Kane.

For Beatrice Welles and actress Paola Mori, putting the material up for auction represents a chance to open up the archives for fans of Orson Welles worldwide. They also consider this gives them a chance to have something closely related to the great filmmaker, as well as a chance for her to re-connect with her father.

"These things were all in trunks in my parent's house and garage after they both passed away", said Welles. "After they died, I couldn't stand to look at anything having to do with them — I was so close to them both. They were everything to me — and much of the stuff was just sitting on top of these two tables (Orson Welles) used as a desk. I said to a friend one day, 'I can't look at these things anymore. I also felt very much, that I was intruding into their private lives." Her friend gathered and kept the material in the house.

"All of these things came with me wherever I moved to," said Welles. "I finally decided to get a storage unit".

"When I finally went and opened the trunk and started looking, I realized that this is a treasure trove that I didn't even know existed", added Welles.

"There were many things in there that I realized I needed to bring home — private letters, scripts, things he had from when he was a child, like essays from the ages of 10, 11 and 12. Those things I'm keeping. The rest of it, though, I realized would mean so much to someone else".

"He was so prolific", she said, "always working on four or five different things at once. He was also a gypsy and he didn't believe in keeping anything. It's really extraordinary that there is anything like this that exists".

"This is not a chance that is going to come along again anytime soon," said Margaret Barrett, Heritage's Director of Entertainment Auctions. "Orson Welles is a Hollywood legend. His work continues to influence directors, writers and actors of all genres. This is an opportunity for many film lovers to have a piece of cinema royalty".