HOW ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS PROPS IN FILM HISTORY, THE SLED FROM ‘CITIZEN KANE,’ WENT FROM CASTOFF TO AUCTION BLOCK
By Harlan Lebo | June 17, 2025
The quest begins. A corroded “No Trespassing” sign on a chain-link fence. An iron gate. A decaying estate. A bedroom in a hilltop modern-day palace, where a titan of 20th-century America breathes his last and utters the most famous line in film history: “Rosebud.”
Here begins the journey of discovery in Orson Welles’ first and finest film, Citizen Kane: the search by reporter Jerry Thompson for the story of newspaper publisher Charles Foster Kane and the secret of Kane’s dying word. But Thompson can find nothing about Rosebud, declaring the word represents a piece in the jigsaw puzzle that was Kane’s life – “a missing piece,” he says. Only the audience learns the truth that had haunted Kane since childhood: “Rosebud” is the name of his beloved sled, a treasured possession and the symbol of familial love and loss that is burned before our eyes in the closing moments of the film, as the unwanted leftovers of Kane’s life are destroyed.
Today, the real-life quest to reveal the mysteries of Rosebud is as compelling as the fictional search 84 years ago. Rosebud represents far more than just a movie prop; the sled has become a tangible symbol of the distinct moment in motion picture history that is Citizen Kane – that singular combination of Welles’ creativity and innovation in storytelling that elevated Rosebud to the rare ranks of the most meaningful and valuable film props of all time. Now, one of only three Rosebud sleds confirmed to have survived the film’s production is a centerpiece offering in Heritage’s July 16-18 Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction.
In more than 125 years of film history, only four props have achieved the status of incomparable icon: The ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, the mysterious statuette pursued by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon, Sam’s piano from Casablanca – and Rosebud from Citizen Kane. Of those hallowed items, Rosebud is the most critical to the plot, while also becoming the most enigmatic, with questions about its origins and history that linger to this day.
“Along with Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the Rosebud sled from Citizen Kane is one of the most iconic objects in Hollywood history,” says Joe Maddalena, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “Far more than a prop, Rosebud is a powerful symbol of cinematic storytelling and an emblem of lost innocence and longing. Rosebud embodies the emotional core of a motion picture widely regarded as the greatest ever made, a film that defined the language of cinema.”
This original Rosebud sled, which was saved from disposal by film director Joe Dante in 1984, is a centerpiece offering in Heritage’s July 16-18 Hollywood/Entertainment Signature® Auction.
The making of Citizen Kane is remembered as perhaps the most extraordinary moment in Hollywood history: Welles, a 24-year-old star on Broadway and radio, was lured to motion pictures with irresistible bait: a contract with RKO Radio Pictures that granted him near-unlimited creative control of his first project. After several false starts – and working under intense pressure from the studio while all Hollywood watched – Welles teamed with co-writer Herman Mankiewicz to create a script that chronicled the rise and fall of newspaper publisher Charles Foster Kane as remembered by the people who knew him (Welles not only co-wrote Citizen Kane, but also produced, directed and starred in the picture).
Citizen Kane was not a financial success when released in 1941 – largely because of threats to suppress the film from newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who believed the movie was a thinly veiled portrait of him. However, over the decades, Citizen Kane grew to legendary stature and is consistently ranked in most polls as the best film of all time.
Skip ahead 43 years, and most of the physical evidence of the Kane production had disappeared, with only a scattering of costumes and a few props intact. But in 1984, through sheer luck and perhaps the best example ever of being in the right place at the right time, director Joe Dante stumbled onto the Hollywood find of the century in a real-life scene reminiscent of the closing moments from Citizen Kane.
Crafted of pine hardwood, the Rosebud sled on offer at Heritage features a painted red seat with ‘ROSEBUD’ stenciled above a stenciled yellow flower.
“In 1984, I was making Explorers on the half of the Paramount lot that used to be RKO,” Dante recalls. “And work crews had descended into the storage areas below the soundstages, where they were doing a comprehensive clean-out, filling dumpsters loaded with lamps and furniture and props to be thrown away – the castoffs from decades of making movies. One of the crew who knew I was a fan of vintage films came to me with a wood prop and said, ‘They’re throwing out all of this stuff. You might want this.’ I’m not sure he knew what the sled was, but he must have had some inkling, or why else would he have asked me?”
For Dante, the prop was a journey back into film history: a child-size sled crafted out of pine boards and runners, emblazoned across the front with a sprig of leaves and a stylized flower, and the name “Rosebud” painted near the top – an instantly recognizable symbol of Welles’ 1941 classic.
“I was astonished,” Dante says. “Since I am a huge fan of the movie, I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be glad to take it.”
Dante went home with the object that became his most prized possession for the next 40 years – the keystone of his collection of movie props and posters. “The sled has great meaning for me,” he says. “Citizen Kane may be the greatest film ever made, and Rosebud is the linchpin of the story – the whole heart of the plot and the focal point of the mysterious drama in Kane’s life. As a director, to own the prop that represents such a vital element of a cinema treasure is particularly meaningful.”
The story of Dante’s Rosebud begins in 1940, in the bustling prop department at RKO studios on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. But back then, it was not “Rosebud,” but rather Rosebuds. At least four sleds were crafted for Citizen Kane: three built from balsa for quick burning in the final scene, and another constructed from pine to use early in the film, when young Charles is playing in the snow before he learns about his life destiny: to be taken from his family and placed in the guardianship of a bank (learning this, the boy shoves his soon-to-be guardian, banker Walter Thatcher, in the stomach with the sled).
A close-up view of the sled’s flower design
Of the three balsa sleds, only two were needed to shoot the footage for the fiery conclusion; the survivor was purchased at auction by Steven Spielberg for $60,500 in 1982. The pine sled used in the film – supposedly the only one – was presented in 1942 to Arthur Bauer, a young film fan, who owned the sled until it was sold at auction in 1996 for $233,500.
But does that close the story? Perhaps not. Why only one pine sled? No director weathering the pressure of the Hollywood studio system (especially Welles creating his first Hollywood film) would have rested easily knowing that only a single version of a vital prop was ready for shooting (especially a sled ridden by a small boy during the interminable takes to complete the scene of young Kane’s future being signed away). A sled broken on set would have required inexcusable delays while another was quickly cut, hammered, painted and stenciled; much better to construct two inexpensive sleds in advance, with one waiting within easy reach if disaster struck.
The idea of a fifth sled grew more plausible when Dante stumbled onto his Rosebud. Scientific testing says there is no reason to doubt that Dante’s Rosebud was created for Citizen Kane. The sled was carbon-dated, and the trace levels of radiation confirmed that the wood was harvested before atomic bomb testing – the period when Citizen Kane was filmed. The sled was crafted from pine – just like the Bauer sled. Under microscopic examination, the paint and detailing are identical to the Spielberg sled and the version sold by Bauer – right down to the accents on the rose leaves on the front and the pinstriping along the sides of each runner.
Dante would place Rosebud as an Easter egg – a special surprise for particularly observant viewers – in four of his projects: Explorers (soon after receiving the sled), The ’Burbs, Gremlins 2 (in cut scenes available on the DVD) and “The Losers” episode of the television series Eerie, Indiana. Now, 41 years after his Rosebud came to him, for Dante, parting with the sled is a bittersweet opportunity to pass along a unique cinema legacy.
“I can’t own Rosebud forever,” he says. “I feel the same way now as I did when I first got it: I thought, how could I have been so lucky? I want to find a collector who cherishes it as much as I do. It’s time for someone else to share the magic. None of us are really in touch with many things from long ago. We all have nostalgia for things that may have happened before we were born but then became part of our lives. I would like to think that Rosebud is one of those treasures of film history that will open a connection between the new owner and the past.”