Audrey Hepburn's Personal Memorabilia Auction Tops $6 Million

An employee poses alongside a display of outfits during a preview of Audrey Hepburn's personal collection. (AFP/Daniel Leal-Olivas)
An employee poses alongside a display of outfits during a preview of Audrey Hepburn's personal collection. (AFP/Daniel Leal-Olivas)
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Audrey Hepburn's Personal Memorabilia Auction Tops $6 Million

An employee poses alongside a display of outfits during a preview of Audrey Hepburn's personal collection. (AFP/Daniel Leal-Olivas)
An employee poses alongside a display of outfits during a preview of Audrey Hepburn's personal collection. (AFP/Daniel Leal-Olivas)

An auction of items from screen icon Audrey Hepburn's personal collection has made more than $6 million, including a world record for her script of the 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Christie's announced Thursday.

The lots realized £4,635,500 ($6.21 million, 5.29 million euros), Agence France Presse quoted Christie's as saying following the 10-hour sale in London on Wednesday.

"We have been utterly delighted with the overwhelming response to the personal collection of Audrey Hepburn," said Adrian Hume-Sayer, head of sale and director of private collections at Christie's auction house.

"She is one of the greatest icons in the history of film and the incredible result so far, for part one of the collection, is a testament to her enduring appeal."

Bidding remains open online until October 4 for part two of the sale.

The British actress, who died in 1993 aged 63, was a movie and style icon from the 1950s onwards.

Dresses and coats, accessories including sunglasses, gloves and earrings as well as letters, photographs and paintings were among the 246 lots in Wednesday's sale, entitled "The Personal Collection of Audrey Hepburn".

They came from the late film legend's Swiss home.

"My mother kept it in the attic, quite literally," Hepburn's son Luca Dotti told AFP at a viewing last week.

The top-selling item on Wednesday was her working script for "Breakfast at Tiffany's", which sold for £632,750, breaking the world auction record for a movie script.

It was estimated to fetch between £60,000 and £90,000.

The parts for the character of Holly Golightly are marked in Hepburn's signature turquoise ink, with words underlined in blue ballpoint pen and pencil for emphasis.

Her working script for the 1964 film "My Fair Lady" went for £206,250.

A 1969 oil on canvas painting by Hepburn entitled "My Garden Flowers" went for £224,750.



Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett Bring Series ‘Disclaimer’ to Venice Film Festival 

Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Alfonso Cuarón, Cate Blanchett Bring Series ‘Disclaimer’ to Venice Film Festival 

Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)
Cast member Cate Blanchett poses on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the mini-series "Disclaimer", out of competition, at the 81st Venice Film Festival, in Venice, Italy August 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Alfonso Cuarón is the first to admit that he does not know how to make a television series. He might even be too old to learn how, he said.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker has technically now made a series, the seven-part AppleTV+ show “Disclaimer,” four episodes of which premiered Thursday at the Venice Film Festival. But he did it his way: Like a film.

Based on Renée Knight’s 2015 book of the same name, “Disclaimer” is a psychological thriller about a documentarian and journalist, Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett), who discovers she’s a character in a novel that reveals her darkest secret.

Cuarón, Blanchett and Kevin Kline all made the journey to the Italian film festival to debut and speak about the show before it begins streaming on Oct. 11.

“I read the book and immediately in my mind I saw a film, but I didn’t know how to make that film,” Cuarón, the director of films including “Gravity” and “Roma,” said in a news conference Thursday. “It was way too long. I could not shape it as such.”

It was only later, he said, that he thought it might work in longer form, inspired by predecessors like Rainer Werner Fassbinder, David Lynch and Krzysztof Kieślowski.

“I was intrigued and that was the point of departure,” Cuarón said.

He started writing with one name in mind for Catherine: Blanchett, terrified that she might say no. Not only did she not say no, she also was the one who suggested Kline for a British character. Sacha Baron Cohen plays her husband in the show and Kodi Smit-McPhee plays her son.

All soon realized that approaching it as a film, and shooting it as a film, would take much longer than a normal series. He even enlisted two cinematographers, Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel, to add a distinct visual language to the different perspectives in the story. All told, it took about a year.

“It was a really long process,” Cuarón said. “And I really feel for the actors because they were stuck with the characters for way too long.”

Blanchett laughed that they were “still recovering.”

The final three episodes will screen Friday at the festival. Though the festival is most known for its feature film premieres, it does play host to select series as well. This year those also include Joe Wright’s Mussolini biopic “M: Son of the Century,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The New Years” and Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours.”