A number of enjoyable details about Oscar statuettes:
The award is 13-and-a-half inches tall, and the award, total, weighs about eight-and-a-half kilos. The statues are manufactured from stable bronze and are plated in actual gold. Throughout steel shortages throughout World Conflict II, the Oscars had been made out of painted plaster, though winners had been permitted to swap them for bronze ones as soon as the supplies had been plentiful once more.
It has been stated that handing an Oscar an excessive amount of could make the gold tarnish, so Oscar winners must watch out with them. The statuettes are made by an artwork foundry in Chicago referred to as Polich Tallix, the identical agency that dealt with the work of Roy Lichtenstein, and the Korean Conflict Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The statuettes additionally, technically, do not belong to the voters or to the individuals who win them. Certainly, beginning in 1951, the Movement Image Academy launched a brand new rule forbidding recipients from promoting their Oscars at any worth. It was necessary to the MPA to maintain its picture pristine and to maintain the Oscars prestigious. In line with their very own rulebook, Oscar winners aren’t allowed to promote or throw away their statuettes with out first making a proposal to promote them again to the Academy … for $1. This rule can be prolonged to the individuals who inherited statuettes from lifeless kinfolk, or who got a statuette as a private present.
Some Oscars have certainly made their means onto the black market up to now, however for probably the most half, one will solely see Oscars in museums, at studios, or within the houses of proficient folks.
The Academy forbids the sale of Oscar statuettes, in order to take care of status
To cite the Academy’s total rule, it reads:
“Academy Award winners haven’t any rights in any respect within the Academy copyright or goodwill within the Oscar statuette or in its trademark and repair mark registrations. Award winners should adjust to these guidelines and rules. Award winners shall not promote or in any other case eliminate the Oscar statuette, nor allow it to be offered or disposed of by operation of legislation, with out first providing to promote it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00. This provision shall apply additionally to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who might purchase a statuette by present or bequest.”
After all, some Oscars have made their means onto the market.
The web site Marca listed the truth that Michael Jackson, again in 1999, purchased the Oscar that “Gone with the Wind” took for Greatest Image. He paid $1.5 million for it. Earlier than the no-sale rule was enacted, actor Howard Russell, winner of 1944’s “The Greatest Years of Our Lives,” offered his Oscar for $60,500 to pay for his spouse’s hospital payments. Additionally, the Oscar that screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz gained for co-writing “Citizen Kane” made its solution to public sale, and was offered for $588,455.
A report in CBS Information revealed that, in 2007, somebody had tried to promote two Oscars gained by Mary Pickford within the Twenties. The Academy sued the vendor, and gained, taking again the statuettes. In 2014, by way of a report in Reuters, the nephew of Oscar winner Joseph Wright (for the artwork path of “My Gal Sal” in 1943) really did public sale off his uncle’s Oscar for $79,200. When the Academy discovered of the sale, they likewise sued the vendor and the public sale home. In addition they gained that case, and the Oscar needed to be returned to them. Unhealthy luck for the client, whoever it was.
Different cases of Oscars being offered
Famed director Steven Spielberg, eager to do proper by the Academy, as soon as tracked down the Oscars that had been gained by Clark Gable for “Gone with the Wind,” and the 2 Oscars Bette Davis gained for “Harmful” and “Jezebel.” He purchased Gable’s at public sale for $607,500 and Davis’ pair for $758,000. Spielberg was no collector, nevertheless, and donated the Oscars again to the Academy. I think about he did not settle for the $1 buyback for them. This was in 2002 and was reported by the Los Angeles Occasions.
In 2012, Yahoo! reported that David Copperfield, the rich magician, offered an Oscar he owned for a whopping $2 million. It was the Oscar that director Michael Curtiz gained for his work on “Casablanca,” and Copperfield reportedly bought it in 2003 for $231,500.
Seeing because the rule about not promoting Oscars wasn’t enacted till 1951, a lot of the tales about black market statuettes contain awards gained within the Twenties, ’30s, or ’40s. For those who’ve seen any newer Oscars in individual, they had been doubtless donated or lent to a museum for show functions.
There’s, sadly, no official file of what number of Oscar statuettes are at the moment unaccounted for. That might take a substantial amount of analysis and investigation, in addition to loads of leg work. Nonetheless, if the Academy is in search of somebody to do such work, it is doubtless that there are scads of certified cineastes everywhere in the world who would fortunately contribute. Identical to the Academy itself, its followers doubtless need the physique to retain its status.
