A small wooden prop that revealed the greatest secret in Hollywood movie history is for sale at an auction starting this month. 

No pre-sale estimate or opening bid has yet been revealed for the Rosebud sled that was the central plot device in Citizen Kane, Orson Welles' 1941 masterpiece that is widely regarded as the best movie ever made. 

Welles as Kane on the campaign trail in a typically beautifully-framed image from his greatest work. 

 

The film tells the story of Charles Foster Kane, a media mogul and barnstorming political figure (almost certainly based on US newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst), who has just died. 

Tasked to tell the story of his life, a newsreel reporter (Jerry Thompson played by William Alland) is sent to make sense of his dying word, “Rosebud”. 

Thompson never finds the answer, but as Kane’s staff throw his possessions in a furnace in his echoing, empty mansion Xanadu, the audience see a child’s sled emblazoned with the word. 

Through the film, in flashbacks we see Kane as a child playing with the sled as his future is decided after a huge gold find on land owned by his mother. 

The prop is a Hollywood needle in a haystack. According to Welles’ recollections, three sleds were made in fast-burning balsa wood to be lit at the end of the film. One of these didn’t get used, and was discovered and auctioned in 1982. Steven Spielberg bought it. 

What the world was looking for was a discarded memory of a little boy's happiness from long, long ago. The Rosebud sled will be sold this month. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. 

 

A sturdier version of the toy, used in the playing scenes, was given away by the studio in a competition to promote the movie. 

Its owner, Arthur Bauer, who was 12 in 1941, held on to it until 1996, when it was auctioned for $233,500. 

This sled is also a harder-wearing pine version of the prop. It was discovered on an RKO Lot in 1984 and handed to director Joe Dante, who was working on the movie Explorers at the time. 

Dante immediately recognised what it was, saved it from disposal and has subsequently commissioned extensive authentication work, including radiocarbon dating that proves the wood in the sled is pre-atom bomb. 

Original art work for the jaw-dropping Apocalypse Now poster could rival the Kane prop for value. Image by Bob Peak, courtesy of Heritage Auctions. 

 

It will be sold in Heritage Auctions' Signature Hollywood and Entertainment auction that is due to start around June 10. 

Heritage describe the sled as “arguably the most powerful symbol of cinematic storytelling from a film that defined the language of cinema,” and “one of the most significant film props in existence.”

No price has been set, but such an item is sure to attract well-heeled collectors - perhaps Mr Spielberg will want to add to his Welles collection. 

The film is legendary. Welles, who starred in, produced, directed and co-wrote the movie, his first feature film, at the age of 26, never matched it, but had a long, varied and interesting career - and private life - after its 1941 release. 

He is collectible as an individual. The film is on another level. 

A poster was sold for $57,500 in 2008. A costume suit for $110,000 in 2013. The two Oscars won - by Welles and his co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz - have both been sold, making $861,542 and $588,455 respectively.

This major, eye-catching sale - look out for Star Wars props and original Apocalypse Now poster art to make headlines too - is due to open from around June 10. 

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