Rare Audrey Hepburn Stamps Up For Sale

The BBC reports a rare sheet of 10 stamps showing film star Audrey Hepburn smoking is expected to fetch at least 400,000 euros (£350,000) at an auction next week. The German Postal Service printed 14 million of the stamps in 2001 but Hepburn's son refused to grant copyright and all but a few sheets were destroyed.

According to the report, "During the last six years, five of the missing stamps were sold at auction for between 62,500 euro (£54,700) - 173,000 euro (£151,000) by stamp appraiser Andreas Schlegel."

The stamps were printed as part of a series featuring classic film stars, but it was only after production that Sean Ferrer, the actress's son, was contacted for copyright permission.

Ferrer is quoted as saying, "In the original photo, she's got sunglasses hanging from her mouth, but they had flipped the negative and replaced the glasses with the cigarette holder."

"Mr Ferrer had wanted a different image to be used because he objected to the fact that she was smoking. He is an anti-smoker and supporter of cancer research. Audrey Hepburn died of colon cancer in 1993 at the age of 64," according to another article that appears on Britain's The Independent website.

Ferrer suggested either the original photo or an alternative be used, but the postal service hastily replaced the actress with a generic film roll and ordered the stamps to be destroyed.

Money raised will be split between Unicef and the Audrey Hepburn Children's foundation.

To read the enitre article, click here.