From 16 to 18 July, Heritage Auctions held its "Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction" in Dallas, featuring more than 700 lots of costumes, props, and other items from the entertainment industry. Notable sales included an original Apocalypse Now painting by Robert Peak, which sold for $687,500 — a new auction record for the artist. A bullwhip used by Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade fetched $525,000; it had been presented to the then Prince of Wales at the film’s London premiere in 1989. Also featured was the woollen cap worn by Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone (1990), which sold for $68,000.
The top lot, however, was a painted wooden sled that played a key role in Citizen Kane, one of the most significant and influential films in Hollywood history. The piece sold for $14.75 million, making it the second most expensive item of film memorabilia ever auctioned. Only the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz have gone for more, having sold last year, also through Heritage Auctions, for $32.5 million.
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Citizen Kane opens with the death of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane. As he dies, he utters the word "Rosebud" and drops a snow globe, which shatters on the floor. Reporter Thompson is tasked with uncovering the meaning behind Kane’s final word. Through a series of interviews and flashbacks, Kane’s life is gradually pieced together. A key scene shows young Kane being placed under the guardianship of banker Walter P. Thatcher, forced to leave behind the sled he had just been playing with in the snow. Its significance becomes clear only in the final scene, when Kane’s apparently worthless belongings are burned. Among them is the sled, now bearing the name “Rosebud”.
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It’s unclear how many sleds were made for the production. According to Orson Welles, who directed the film and played the lead role, three sleds made of fast-burning balsa wood were built for the burning scene. Two were used during filming. The remaining sled was purchased by Steven Spielberg at Sotheby’s in 1982 for $60,500 and has been in his collection ever since.
The childhood snow scene used sleds made of solid pine. In 1942, 12-year-old Arthur Bauer won one of these in a competition run by RKO Pictures. He kept it for over 50 years before selling it at Christie’s in 1996 for $233,500. The buyer has never been publicly identified.
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The pine sled recently auctioned by Heritage belonged to director Joe Dante, known for Gremlins (1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). He was given the sled in 1984 by a Paramount Pictures employee who had been clearing out old RKO equipment from the studio lot. “I had the honour of protecting this piece of film history for decades,” said Dante. “Seeing Rosebud find a new home – and make history in the process – is surreal and deeply satisfying. It is a testament to the enduring power of storytelling.”
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It’s no longer possible to say with certainty which of the two known pine sleds appears in the film. It may be that both were used. Either way, the result reflects the lasting significance of Citizen Kane and the continued fascination it holds for film lovers around the world.
