Orson Welles' personal Citizen Kane scripts sell at auction

The auction for three of Orson Welles’ personal scripts from his 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane concluded Tuesday, selling for more than $102,000 total, the Associated Press reports.

Auctioned by Profiles in History, the three drafts up for sale were: An original first draft by Herman Mankiewicz (with the working title American) sold for $32,000; a later draft with more significant development sold for $25,600; and the final shooting script, featuring handwritten notes and camera-angle diagrams by Welles himself, and signed by most of the film’s stars, went for $44,800.

Welles co-wrote, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane, which charts the rise and fall of a publishing tycoon. He was just 25 when he made the film.

The manuscripts, the AP notes, were sold by one of Welles’ friends, who acquired them after the filmmaker’s 1985 death.