Why Oscar Winners Cannot Promote Their Awards

A couple of enjoyable info about Oscar statuettes: 

The award is 13-and-a-half inches tall, and the award, general, weighs about eight-and-a-half kilos. The statues are made from strong bronze and are plated in actual gold. Throughout metallic shortages throughout World Battle II, the Oscars have been made out of painted plaster, though winners have been permitted to swap them for bronze ones as soon as the supplies have 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 known as Polich Tallix, the identical agency that dealt with the work of Roy Lichtenstein, and the Korean Battle 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 accordance 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 also be prolonged to the individuals who inherited statuettes from useless family members, or who got a statuette as a private reward. 

Some Oscars have certainly made their manner onto the black market previously, however for probably the most half, one will solely see Oscars in museums, at studios, or within the properties of gifted folks. 

To cite the Academy’s total rule, it reads: 

“Academy Award winners don’t have any rights in anyway 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 get rid of 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 reward or bequest.” 

In fact, some Oscars have made their manner 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 Finest Image. He paid $1.5 million for it. Earlier than the no-sale rule was enacted, actor Howard Russell, winner of 1944’s “The Finest 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 received for co-writing “Citizen Kane” made its method 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 received by Mary Pickford within the Twenties. The Academy sued the vendor, and received, taking again the statuettes. In 2014, by way of a report in Reuters, the nephew of Oscar winner Joseph Wright (for the artwork course 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. Additionally they received that case, and the Oscar needed to be returned to them. Unhealthy luck for the customer, whoever it was. 

Famed director Steven Spielberg, eager to do proper by the Academy, as soon as tracked down the Oscars that have been received by Clark Gable for “Gone with the Wind,” and the 2 Oscars Bette Davis received 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 received 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, many of the tales about black market statuettes contain awards received within the Twenties, ’30s, or ’40s. For those who’ve seen any newer Oscars in particular person, they have been probably donated or lent to a museum for show functions. 

There may be, sadly, no official file of what number of Oscar statuettes are at present unaccounted for. That will take quite a lot of analysis and investigation, in addition to numerous leg work. Nevertheless, if the Academy is in search of somebody to do such work, it is probably that there are scads of certified cineastes everywhere in the world who would fortunately contribute. Similar to the Academy itself, its followers probably need the physique to retain its status.