Rare Audrey Hepburn Stamps Head To Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Oct 16th 2010 at 10:01AM

A rare sheet of 10 German stamps depicting Audrey Hepburn smoking are estimated to sell for a over 500,000 euros when they head to auction today, October 16 in Berlin at a gala dinner.

In 2002 the German ministry of finance decided to honor Audrey Hepburn with a stamp and entered into a contract with the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund (AHCF). The German Postal Service printed 14 million of the stamps in 2001 with the actress as Holly Golightly in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. But the image which showed Hepburn with a cigarette holder in her mouth didn't meet the approval of the AHCF and Hepburn's son Sean Hepburn Ferrer. The entire stock was destroyed except for three sheets -- one kept by the Ministry, one by the printer and one located recently in a file in the office of Sean Hepburn Ferrer, the chairman of the AHCF. Five missing stamps were sold at auction for between 62,500 euro (£54,700) - 173,000 euro (£151,000) by stamp appraiser Andreas Schlegel over the past six years. The mint condition sheet of 10 stamps will benefit charities through AHCF and UNICEF. A contract Ferrer signed with the German finance ministry earlier this year ensured that the government would not sell either of its sheets until 2040 making this the only sheet that people can buy.

Tags: audrey hepburn

Filed under: Auctions

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

oldthudman Oct 16th 2010 1:03PM

Now those stamps are worth a half million! ...........
Audrey Hepburn was one of my favorite actresses...... In fact one of the"great actresses" of all time and beautiful to boot......
Will never forget seeing her dressed for the ball in My Fair Lady.....Gorgeous!