On June 2004 Sotheby's auction house hosted a two-day estate sale auctioning personal belongings of the legendary actress to collectors. The 700-plus items included Hepburn's furniture, jewelry (which included the platinum, diamond and sapphire brooch from one-time lover Howard Hughes which fetched $120,000, six times its estimated price); paperwork (such as personal checks, telegrams, birth certificates, letters, film contracts, movie scripts), and nomination certificates from the Academy Awards. Among other items were casual clothes, and gowns that included her unusual wedding dress to Ludlow Ogden Smith in 1928, made of crushed white velvet with antiqued gold embroidery, which sold for $27,000. Also in the lot were house decorations drawings and paintings done by the actress herself, glamour portraits, and a glass bronze sculpture entitled "Angel on a Wave", which sold for $90,000; while a self-portrait entitled "Breakfast in Bed and a Self-Portrait in Brisbane, Australia", fetched $33,000, some 40 times the estimated price. Movie memorabilia included a ring from 1968's The Lion in Winter (1968), and Gertrude, the canoe from the film On Golden Pond (1981) which was bought for $19,200 by entertainer Wayne Newton. The most sought-after piece and the most expensive item was the bronze bust of Spencer Tracy that Hepburn created herself and that was also featured in their Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). The audience cheered when the three-inch sculpture sold for $316,000, compared to the estimated $3,000-$5,000. The only awards won by the actress that were auctioned were her 1958 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, the annual Shakespeare Club of New York City award, the Fashion Desinger Lifetime Achievement, a few Box Office Blue Ribbons, her Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque and the 1990 Kennedy Center Honor. Hepburn's four Oscars were not included due to contract reasons.
Katharine Hepburn Biography, Age, Height, Husband, Net Worth, Family
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