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Audrey lights up a small fortune
Source: Agencies |
May 26, 2009, Tuesday
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Print Edition
AN anonymous collector stands to make a tidy profit after discovering a rare stamp portraying movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking - one of a series that should have been incinerated by the German government.
In 2001, the government printed 14 million Audrey Hepburn stamps as part of a series featuring movie stars including Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo.
The print run was destroyed after Hepburn's son Sean Ferrer objected to the cigarette holder dangling from the actress' mouth and refused to grant copyright.
But the Finance Ministry had already delivered advance copies to Deutsche Post for approval. Thirty proof copies escaped destruction when an unknown employee pocketed them and used them to send letters postmarked from Berlin.
A minimum bid of 30,000 euros (US$41,959) has been set for the stamp - of which only five copies are known to have survived - at its auction in Berlin to be held today.
"We can only guess that whoever took the Hepburn stamps from Deutsche Post didn't realize their value," auctioneer Andreas Schlegel said.
In 2001, the government printed 14 million Audrey Hepburn stamps as part of a series featuring movie stars including Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo.
The print run was destroyed after Hepburn's son Sean Ferrer objected to the cigarette holder dangling from the actress' mouth and refused to grant copyright.
But the Finance Ministry had already delivered advance copies to Deutsche Post for approval. Thirty proof copies escaped destruction when an unknown employee pocketed them and used them to send letters postmarked from Berlin.
A minimum bid of 30,000 euros (US$41,959) has been set for the stamp - of which only five copies are known to have survived - at its auction in Berlin to be held today.
"We can only guess that whoever took the Hepburn stamps from Deutsche Post didn't realize their value," auctioneer Andreas Schlegel said.
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