BERLIN – A dispute over an Audrey Hepburn stamp in Germany is going to help poor children in Africa.
A mint-condition sheet of 10 stamps portraying Hepburn, a coy smile on her face and a long, black cigarette holder dangling from her lips, is expected to fetch at least (EURO)400,000 ($565,000) at a charity auction Saturday in Berlin.
Auctioneer Andreas Schlegel said he's received interest from four serious bidders. Two-thirds of money raised will go to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, and one-third to UNICEF Germany.
The sale brings a profitable outcome to a botched stamp series that should have been destroyed years ago — and evokes Hepburn's starring role in the 1963 thriller "Charade," in which the characters chase a set of rare stamps.
The German postal service printed 14 million of Hepburn stamps in 2001 showing the Belgian-born actress in her most famous role as the ebullient Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
Only after the stamps were printed was Sean Ferrer, 50, Hepburn's son and the chair of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, was contacted to grant copyright — but he refused, arguing that the image had been altered.
"In the original photo, she's got sunglasses hanging from her mouth, but they had flipped the negative and replaced the glasses with the cigarette holder," he told The Associated Press.
Ferrer suggested using either the original photo or an alternative, but the postal service ended up scrapping the stamp and ordering those produced destroyed.
Complete on >> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101016/ap_en_mo/eu_people_audrey_hepburn_auction
A mint-condition sheet of 10 stamps portraying Hepburn, a coy smile on her face and a long, black cigarette holder dangling from her lips, is expected to fetch at least (EURO)400,000 ($565,000) at a charity auction Saturday in Berlin.
Auctioneer Andreas Schlegel said he's received interest from four serious bidders. Two-thirds of money raised will go to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, and one-third to UNICEF Germany.
The sale brings a profitable outcome to a botched stamp series that should have been destroyed years ago — and evokes Hepburn's starring role in the 1963 thriller "Charade," in which the characters chase a set of rare stamps.
The German postal service printed 14 million of Hepburn stamps in 2001 showing the Belgian-born actress in her most famous role as the ebullient Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."
Only after the stamps were printed was Sean Ferrer, 50, Hepburn's son and the chair of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, was contacted to grant copyright — but he refused, arguing that the image had been altered.
"In the original photo, she's got sunglasses hanging from her mouth, but they had flipped the negative and replaced the glasses with the cigarette holder," he told The Associated Press.
Ferrer suggested using either the original photo or an alternative, but the postal service ended up scrapping the stamp and ordering those produced destroyed.
Complete on >> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101016/ap_en_mo/eu_people_audrey_hepburn_auction
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