Orson Welles' Oscar award from his 1941 "Citizen Kane" film will be up for auction at Sotheby's.

The auction house will accept bids starting on December 11 for the statuette Welles won for screenwriting with Herman Mankiewicz. Sotheby's estimates the Oscar could fetch between $800,000 and $1.2 million.

"Citizen Kane" focuses on a power-hungry newspaper tycoon with political ambitions. The senior vice president at Sotheby's said Welles had created a landmark movie, and many consider it to be one of the most highly acclaimed films ever.

The Oscar was once considered lost until Welles' younger daughter Beatrice tracked it down. After various lawsuits to decide who the Oscar belonged to, Beatrice got possession of it and sold it to the Dax Foundation, a non-profit group. Dax is auctioning the award.

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