At the 1942 Academy Awards, Orson Welles won the Best Screenplay Oscar for Citizen Kane. What he did with the statuette next remained a mystery for decades. When at last the mystery was solved, the Oscar sparked litigation between Welles's daughter, the Academy, and a cinematographer with dozens of adult films to his name.
Welles Wins (And Loses)
In May 1941, Citizen Kane premiered in New York City. Written, directed, produced, and starring Orson Welles, the movie is now regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Contemporary reviewers praised Citizen Kane as well, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bestowed nine nominations on the film. However, it won only one Oscar: "Best Writing" (now known as "Best Original Screenplay") for Orson Welles and co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz. Welles, no fan of the Academy, did not attend the ceremony.
After winning an Oscar in 1942, Welles continued to work as an actor, director, writer, and narrator up until his death in 1985. When Welles's third wife, Paola Mori, died the next year, their daughter Beatrice inherited Welles's estate, including the Citizen Kane Oscar. As a key piece of both Hollywood and Welles family history, the Oscar statuette had considerable value. Unfortunately, no one knew where it was.
Believing the Oscar had been lost or stolen, Beatrice Welles asked the Academy for a replacement. Her father, she told the Academy, lost the Oscar "many years ago through his extensive travelling." The Academy obliged, sending her a replacement Citizen Kane Oscar in 1988.
"Here, Keep This"
In 1994, six years after Beatrice Welles received the replacement Oscar, Sotheby's auction house contacted her with surprising news. It had the original Citizen Kane Oscar.
The Oscar had not been lost or stolen after all. It had been used in 1974 as a prop on Orson Welles's still-unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind. When filming wrapped, Orson Welles handed the statuette to the film's cinematographer, Gary Graver, and said, "Here, keep this." Graver did just that, believing the Oscar was now his. He promptly put it in storage, where it remained until 1994.
Graver continued to work with Orson Welles up until the director's death in 1985. He also built a colorful résumé filming and directing numerous adult films. In 1994, the same year Graver directed Hard-on Copy and Tail Taggers 101, he sold the Citizen Kane Oscar to a company called Bay Holdings for $50,000. Separately, Bay Holdings had agreed with Sotheby's to auction the statuette with a minimum reserve bid of $250,000. When Beatrice Welles learned of the auction, she sued Graver and Bay Holdings to obtain the statuette.
In court documents, Graver claimed that Orson Welles gave him the Citizen Kane Oscar as a gift and as partial compensation for his cinematography work on Welles's films. According to Graver, over the course of their fifteen-year working relationship, Orson Welles had given him numerous items as a token of friendship - the Citizen Kane Oscar among them. Providing little reasoning or factual context, the California court found that Orson Welles "did not intend a gift… but rather that Graver would take only custody of the Oscar statuette as any other prop for Orson's use in the future."
The court also determined that Graver had "secreted and hid his possession of the Oscar" until he sold it to Bay Holdings. Although Graver told the court he had received many gifts from Orson Welles, when Graver spoke with Beatrice Welles at her father's funeral in 1985, he did not mention to her that he had the original Citizen Kane Oscar in storage. In fact, Graver told Beatrice Welles that he had nothing of her father's to remember him by except personal memories.
The court found that Bay Holdings, through its president Peter Golding, knew Graver's claim to ownership was questionable, and also knew that Graver had never told Beatrice Welles of the Oscar's whereabouts. Ultimately, the Court awarded the Citizen Kane Oscar to Beatrice Welles.