Breakfast at Tiffany's dress fetches $800,000

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

London, Dec 6: The iconic black dress worn by Audrey Hepburnin the 1961 film ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'' sold for 410,000 pounds(dollar 800,000) around seven times its pre-sale estimate.

Including a premium paid to auctioneers Christie's, the total costfor the sleeveless, floor-length Givenchy dress rose to 467,200 pounds(dollar,920,000 yesterday).

The sale room at Christie's broke into applause at the end of along and tense session when it was bought by an anonymous telephonebidder.

The dress, one of three versions made for Hepburn for her role asgamine socialite Holly Golightly in the classic romantic comedy, wasbeing auctioned on behalf of the City of Joy Aid charity which helpsunderprivileged children in India.

''There are tears in my eyes,'' said Dominic Lapierre, who runs the charity.

''I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of clothwhich belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buybricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world intoschools.'' Christie's said the dress set a new world record for onemade for a film, but it fell short of the auction house's own worldrecord for any dress.

That belongs to the white silk evening gown worn by Marilyn Monroethe night she sang ''Happy Birthday, Mr President'' to John F Kennedyin 1962, which fetched dollar 1.27 million at a New York auction in1999.

The Hepburn dress was the star lot of the annual film andentertainment sale at Christie's, in London's upmarket South Kensington.

According to Christie's, a second version of the dress remains inthe Givenchy archives while a third is part of a collection of theMuseum of Costume in Madrid.

Hepburn wears the black fashion classic as she emerges from a cabonto a deserted, early-morning New York street and peers through thewindow of jeweller Tiffany while she eats her breakfast from a brownpaper bag.


Reuters

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