Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) has long been widespread acclaimed. The original camera negative was presumed lost in a vault fire in the 1970s. But during the release of the newly restored version last year, the American writer Nicolas Falacci said there is another story. Falacci, who had been checking and selecting the films frame by frame in the preparation of the restoration in 1991, revealed on his Twitter that, his industry peer told him that the original negative is believed to be sent to a silver reclamation plant by RKO executive who oversees the film inventory.
There is no way of verifying this story. Yet there is no verification of the original negative being lost in a warehouse fire either. And some people still hold out hope that a version of better image quality will be restored someday from the original negative.
Newly restored version from 35mm nitrate composite fine-grain master and dupe negative: https://www.criterion.com/films/32250-citizen-kane
Further readings: ‘Negative for Citizen Kane may be lost forever’
https://www.wellesnet.com/citizen-kane-negative/
Photo credit: Criterion Collection
