Academy: Oscar set for auction is a fake
LOS ANGELES - An online auction of what was billed as Leo McCarey's best-director Oscar for 1944's "Going My Way" was canceled Friday after officials from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences deemed the trophy a fake.
Opening bids for the Oscar, offered online through Chicago-based Mastro Auctions, started Sunday at $25,000.
Academy experts called the statuette a "high-quality counterfeit." They found the award was made of two mismatched parts, neither of which belonged to McCarey's original Oscar.
The base was authentic, the experts said, but its nameplate had been removed and replaced with a phony one identifying it as McCarey's directing award for "Going My Way," which also won best picture and other honors.
The statuette itself was a close copy, said the Academy's executive administrator Ric Robertson, but it weighed one pound more than an authentic Oscar.
Counterfeit Oscars are nothing new, said Academy spokeswoman Leslie Unger, but this was the first time a phony was offered for sale as a specific Oscar with a recipient's name attached.
The person who consigned the statuette to the auction company was not identified.
Robertson said in a statement that "there were indications that the individual who consigned the statuette to the auctioneers may have himself been misled at the time he acquired it."
He added that the Academy would try to identify who made the copy and "pursue its legal options."
There was no immediate reply to a telephone call and e-mail to Mastro Auctions seeking comment.
1944 Oscar for Sale
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July 22, 2006
1944 Best Directing Oscar Up for Auction
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:54 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The best director Oscar for the 1944 Bing Crosby film ''Going My Way'' is going on the auction block.
Online bidding for the golden statuette awarded to Leo McCary begins July 31 and ends Aug. 16, said Doug Allen, president of Illinois-based Mastro Auctions, which is handling the sale. The minimum opening bid is $25,000, although Allen said he believes the statuette is worth six figures.
A collector who wishes to remain anonymous decided to put the Oscar up for sale. Allen said the collector bought it from McCary's family about five years ago. The director died in 1969.
''Going My Way'' won seven Academy Awards, including best picture honors and the best actor award for Crosby.
Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences frowns on the sale of Oscars, it wasn't until 1950 that the Academy began requiring winners to sign statements promising neither they nor their heirs would sell one.
Several pre-1950 Oscars have been purchased by Steven Spielberg, who donated them back to the Academy.
Four years ago, the Oscar-winning director paid $180,000 for the best actress Oscar Bette Davis won for her 1935 film ''Dangerous.'' The year before, he paid $578,000 for Davis' Oscar for ''Jezebel,'' and in 1996 he shelled out $607,500 for Clark Gable's best actor Oscar for 1934's ''It Happened One Night.''
1944 Best Directing Oscar Up for Auction
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:54 a.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The best director Oscar for the 1944 Bing Crosby film ''Going My Way'' is going on the auction block.
Online bidding for the golden statuette awarded to Leo McCary begins July 31 and ends Aug. 16, said Doug Allen, president of Illinois-based Mastro Auctions, which is handling the sale. The minimum opening bid is $25,000, although Allen said he believes the statuette is worth six figures.
A collector who wishes to remain anonymous decided to put the Oscar up for sale. Allen said the collector bought it from McCary's family about five years ago. The director died in 1969.
''Going My Way'' won seven Academy Awards, including best picture honors and the best actor award for Crosby.
Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences frowns on the sale of Oscars, it wasn't until 1950 that the Academy began requiring winners to sign statements promising neither they nor their heirs would sell one.
Several pre-1950 Oscars have been purchased by Steven Spielberg, who donated them back to the Academy.
Four years ago, the Oscar-winning director paid $180,000 for the best actress Oscar Bette Davis won for her 1935 film ''Dangerous.'' The year before, he paid $578,000 for Davis' Oscar for ''Jezebel,'' and in 1996 he shelled out $607,500 for Clark Gable's best actor Oscar for 1934's ''It Happened One Night.''