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　　一版很少见的印有美国影星奥黛丽-赫本肖像的邮票10月16日在柏林的一个慈善拍卖会上拍得了606000美元。这笔款项的三分之二将用于帮助非洲撒哈拉沙漠以南地区儿童的教育事业。

　　这版邮票共十枚，印有赫本微笑着叼着一个长长的黑色烟嘴形象。这版邮票属于未能成功发行的邮票系列，本应该在多年前销毁。这版邮票给失败的邮票发行计划带来了有利可图的结果，并让人们想起赫本1963年在惊悚片《谜中谜》中扮演的角色，该片讲述一些人争夺一套很稀有的邮票。

　　赫本与演员兼导演梅尔-费勒所生的儿子、50岁的西恩-费勒是奥黛丽-赫本儿童基金的负责人。他称，他对16日的拍卖活动使人们的注意力聚焦在需要帮助的儿童方面感到激动。他表示，曾希望邮票以更高价格售出。

　　三分之二拍卖款项将捐给奥黛丽-赫本儿童基金，三分之一将捐给联合国儿童基金会驻德国办事处。德国联邦邮政公司2001年印制了1400万张赫本邮票，邮票上的图像采用了赫本在《蒂梵尼早餐》最著名的形象。德国联邦邮政公司在邮票印制完毕后才联系了西恩-费勒，以要求获得版权许可，但是费勒以图像遭到改动为由拒绝授予版权许可。

　　他对美联社称：“在原始图片中，她嘴里叼着一副太阳镜。但他们改动了胶卷，把太阳镜替换成烟斗。”费勒建议采用原始照片或者改用其它照片，但德国联邦邮政公司作出了取消发行邮票的决定，下令销毁了那些已生产出来的邮票。

　　BERLIN – A rare sheet of 10 stamps depicting Audrey Hepburn fetched euro430,000 ($606,000) at a charity auction in Berlin, two-thirds of which will go to help educate children in sub-Saharan Africa。

　　The mint-condition sheet of 10 stamps featuring Hepburn, a coy smile on her face and a long, black cigarette holder dangling from her lips, brought a profitable outcome to a botched stamp series that should have been destroyed years ago — and evokes Hepburn's starring role in the 1963 thriller "Charade," in which the characters chase a set of rare stamps。

　　Sean Ferrer, 50, Hepburn's son with actor and director Mel Ferrer, and the chair of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, said he was thrilled that the sale Saturday brought "focus on children in need," but wished the stamps had sold for a higher price。

　　Two-thirds of money raised will go to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, and one-third to UNICEF Germany。

　　The German postal service originally printed 14 million of the Hepburn stamps in 2001 showing the Belgian-born actress in her most famous role as the ebullient Holly Golightly in "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

　　Only after the stamps were printed was Sean Ferrer, 50, Hepburn's son and the chair of the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund, contacted to grant copyright — but he refused, arguing that the image had been altered。

　　"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," he told The Associated Press。

　　Ferrer suggested using either the original photo or an alternative, but the postal service ended up scrapping the stamp and ordering those produced destroyed。

　　Deutsche Post says it saved only two sheets of the stamps — one for its own archive and one for the German Post Museum. But in 2004, a single stamp with Hepburn smoking, postmarked Berlin, landed on auctioneer Andreas Schlegel's desk。

　　"I was obviously very surprised, because they never were supposed to be used as stamps at all," Schlegel said。

　　Between 2004 and 2009, four other Hepburn stamps turned up and were authenticated. They sold at auction for between euro62,500 and euro173,000.

　　After his success selling the fifth stamp, Schlegel contacted Ferrer to suggest asking the German government if they could sell one of the archived stamp sheets for charity. But Ferrer had a better idea: Why not the pristine sheet Germany sent him in 2001, which he still had?

　　"Andreas almost fell backward and had an apoplectic fit when he heard this," Ferrer said。

　　Ferrer then signed a contract with the German Finance Ministry, securing rights to sell the stamp sheet for charity and ensuring the government would not be able to sell either of its sheets until 2040.

　　That move helped drive up the price of the auction, said Mercer Bristow, director of stamp authentication for the American Philatelic Society。

　　"It goes back to supply and demand. It's the only sheet out there people can bid on and she's still such a popular actress," he told the AP from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania。

　　Other items being auctioned Saturday include a pair of Hepburn's black ballet slippers and a portrait of the actress。

　　"I feel wonderful about the fact that something that belonged to her today can bring focus on children in need all over the world," Ferrer said。

　　Hepburn was a UNICEF ambassador from 1988 until shortly before her death from colon cancer in 1993.

　　"My mother always told me, 'I didn't make a perfume or go sell toilet paper. I did something good with my name," Ferrer said。

　　(AP)

　　(解雨)