THE LATE Audrey Hepburn could have had Breakfast at Tiffany's for life with the €430,000 paid in Berlin yesterday for stamps bearing her likeness.
The high point of a UN charity auction in Berlin’s Adlon Hotel yesterday were 10 stamps showing the actress wearing a wide-brim hat, with a cigarette in a holder between her teeth.
Nine years ago Sean Hepburn Ferrer, son of the actress and manager of her estate, intervened to stop the production of the memorial stamp, claiming the image had been digitally altered and would encourage smoking.
As he owned the rights to the photograph, and hadn’t been consulted beforehand, some €7 million worth of stamps had to be pulped and reprinted, this time with the cigarette airbrushed out.
The original stamp with the cigarette is highly prized among stamp collectors and the sheet of stamps put up for auction by Mr Hepburn Ferrer earned 54 times their face value.
“It is simply marvellous that a set of stamps with a face value of 16 marks can be auctioned for €430,000 in the end and will serve a good purpose,” he said, blaming the printing error a decade ago on “misunderstandings and miscommunication”.
“I feel wonderful that we are able to turn something around that started on the wrong foot that is now going to help a lot of people around the world.”
The proceeds were destined for children's charity Unicef and the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund. The star of films such as Breakfast at Tiffany's and Funny Facebecame an international style icon.
In later years she retired from acting and worked as UN goodwill ambassador until her death from cancer in 1993 aged 63.
“My mother always told me, ‘I didn’t make a perfume or go sell toilet paper. I did something good with my name’, ” Mr Ferrer said.
The purchaser of the sheet of stamps requested anonymity.