The US Academy Awards will be held this Sunday, and each award winner will be presented with an Oscar, a 13.5-inch tall, 8.5 pound, gold-plated statuette recognizing her filmmaking prowess. Since 1950, Oscar-winners have been required to sign a contract stating they will sell the Oscar back to the Academy at a nominal price if they ever want to unload it. But the statuettes awarded before 1950 can be—and have been—openly sold to others.
As you would expect, it’s difficult to find records for every Oscar sale, but a Hollywood memorabilia dealer, who runs the website hollywoodgoldenguy.com, has compiled a partial list of about 30 on his site. The top 20, by sale price, are shown above.
*Note: in original version of the chart, the dollar values were not adjusted for inflation. In the current version they are, so that their relative worth can be compared meaningfully. The unadjusted values—which represent the agreed upon price at the time of each sale—can be found at hollywoodgoldenguy.com