LONDON (AP) – The black Givenchy gown worn by Audrey Hepburn in the film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” has sold at auction for $807,000.

The price, paid by a telephone bidder, was almost six times the highest pre-sale estimate.

The iconic garment had been expected to fetch between $98,000 and $138,000 as part of a sale of film and television memorabilia at Christie’s auction house in London. The final sale price was $922,158, including buyer’s premium.

Proceeds from the sale will go to the charity City of Joy Aid, which helps India’s poor. The gown’s owners – the founders of City of Joy Aid – received it as a gift from designer Hubert de Givenchy.

“I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools,” said the co-seller, Dominic Lapierre.

Hepburn wore the dress for one of her best-known roles, as eccentric Manhattan socialite Holly Golightly in the 1961 film adaptation of Truman Capote’s novel.

The opening scenes of the film show Golightly in the dress emerging from a taxi on 5th Avenue with her brown-bag breakfast to ogle diamonds and luxury goods in the storefront windows of Tiffany & Co.

Hepburn starred in more than 20 films before becoming a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. She died in 1993 at the age of 63.

Images of Hepburn dressed as Golightly – with gloves, an elaborate pearl choker and trademark cigarette holder – still endure.

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On the Net:

Christie’s: http://www.christies.com

City of Joy Aid: http://www.cityofjoyaid.org/

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ROME (AP) – Luciano Pavarotti, battling pancreatic cancer, recently completed medical treatment and is looking forward to resuming his concert tour next year, but won’t attend a ceremony this week to receive an award.

His London-based manager, Terri Robson, said in a statement that the 71-year-old tenor will not go to the northern city of Bergamo to pick up the award at a concert where some of his students are singing Wednesday night.

The occasion would have been his first public appearance since undergoing surgery over the summer.

“Maestro Pavarotti’s first public appearance since undergoing surgery will, in fact, be at a major charity event in 2007, details of which are to be released soon,” Robson said Tuesday.

The singer “recently completed his medical treatment and couldn’t be happier with his results and progress,” the manager said, without describing the treatment.

“Throughout the treatment, Mr. Pavarotti has been busy working with the young singers he has personally selected to sing in Bergamo. He has also been preparing for a new recording and is very much looking forward to continuing his worldwide farewell tour next year.”

Last week, the Donizetti Theater in Bergamo said the opera star was coming to the Bergamo Music Festival to accept the Donizetti Prize.

Pavarotti was preparing to leave New York in July to resume a farewell tour when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass. He had surgery, and all his remaining concerts this year were canceled.

The tenor retired from staged opera in 2004.

Pavarotti was being awarded the prize in recognition of his interpretations of the opera composer’s works throughout the world. Donizetti was born in Bergamo in 1797.

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On the Net:

Luciano Pavarotti: http://www.lucianopavarotti.com/intro.html