Hepburn stamp sells for $93,800
A rare stamp portraying movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking sold for $93,800 at an auction in Germany.
A rare stamp portraying movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking sold for $93,800 at an auction in Germany.
Both buyer and seller were anonymous. Only five copies of the 2001 stamp are known to exist.
The print run was ordered destroyed after Hepburn’s son, Sean Ferrer, objected to the cigarette holder dangling from the star’s mouth and refused to grant copyright.
Thirty proof copies escaped incineration. Most probably ended up in the trash can, but a few have wound up in the hands of collectors.
“We can only guess that whoever took the Hepburn stamps from Deutsche Post didn’t realise their value, thought they would save 55 cents and just used them on normal letters,” auctioneer Andreas Schlegel said.
Hepburn died of colon cancer in 1993. Her son said he hoped the stamp seller would use his windfall to benefit cancer research or an anti-smoking campaign.
