A few fun facts about Oscar statuettes: 

The award is 13-and-a-half inches tall, and the award, overall, weighs about eight-and-a-half pounds. The statues are made of solid bronze and are plated in real gold. During metal shortages during World War II, the Oscars were made out of painted plaster, although winners were permitted to swap them for bronze ones once the materials were plentiful again. 

It’s been said that handing an Oscar too much can make the gold tarnish, so Oscar winners have to be careful with them. The statuettes are made by an art foundry in Chicago called Polich Tallix, the same firm that handled the work of Roy Lichtenstein, and the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

The statuettes also, technically, don’t belong to the voters or to the people who win them. Indeed, starting in 1951, the Motion Picture Academy introduced a new rule forbidding recipients from selling their Oscars at any price. It was important to the MPA to keep its image pristine and to keep the Oscars prestigious. According to their own rulebook, Oscar winners aren’t allowed to sell or throw away their statuettes without first making an offer to sell them back to the Academy … for $1. This rule is also extended to the people who inherited statuettes from dead relatives, or who were given a statuette as a personal gift. 

Some Oscars have indeed made their way onto the black market in the past, but for the most part, one will only see Oscars in museums, at studios, or in the homes of talented people. 

To quote the Academy’s entire rule, it reads: 

“Academy Award winners have no rights whatsoever in the Academy copyright or goodwill in the Oscar statuette or in its trademark and service mark registrations. Award winners must comply with these rules and regulations. Award winners shall not sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law, without first offering to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1.00. This provision shall apply also to the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest.” 

Of course, some Oscars have made their way onto the market.

The website Marca listed the fact that Michael Jackson, back in 1999, bought the Oscar that “Gone with the Wind” took for Best Picture. He paid $1.5 million for it. Before the no-sale rule was enacted, actor Howard Russell, winner of 1944’s “The Best Years of Our Lives,” sold his Oscar for $60,500 to pay for his wife’s hospital bills. Also, the Oscar that screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz won for co-writing “Citizen Kane” made its way to auction, and was sold for $588,455. 

A report in CBS News revealed that, in 2007, someone had tried to sell two Oscars won by Mary Pickford in the 1920s. The Academy sued the seller, and won, taking back the statuettes. In 2014, via a report in Reuters, the nephew of Oscar winner Joseph Wright (for the art direction of “My Gal Sal” in 1943) actually did auction off his uncle’s Oscar for $79,200. When the Academy learned of the sale, they likewise sued the seller and the auction house. They also won that case, and the Oscar had to be returned to them. Bad luck for the buyer, whoever it was. 

Famed director Steven Spielberg, wanting to do right by the Academy, once tracked down the Oscars that were won by Clark Gable for “Gone with the Wind,” and the two Oscars Bette Davis won for “Dangerous” and “Jezebel.” He bought Gable’s at auction for $607,500 and Davis’ pair for $758,000. Spielberg was no collector, however, and donated the Oscars back to the Academy. I imagine he didn’t accept the $1 buyback for them. This was in 2002 and was reported by the Los Angeles Times. 

In 2012, Yahoo! reported that David Copperfield, the wealthy magician, sold an Oscar he owned for a whopping $2 million. It was the Oscar that director Michael Curtiz won for his work on “Casablanca,” and Copperfield reportedly purchased it in 2003 for $231,500. 

Seeing as the rule about not selling Oscars wasn’t enacted until 1951, most of the stories about black market statuettes involve awards won in the 1920s, ’30s, or ’40s. If you’ve seen any newer Oscars in person, they were likely donated or lent to a museum for display purposes. 

There is, sadly, no official record of how many Oscar statuettes are currently unaccounted for. That would take a great deal of research and investigation, as well as a lot of leg work. However, if the Academy is looking for someone to do such work, it’s likely that there are scads of qualified cineastes all over the world who would happily contribute. Just like the Academy itself, its fans likely want the body to retain its prestige.