The figure, which stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs over 4 kg, was created in bronze and then gold-plated. The statues are now made of metal and have gold plating.

An Oscar statuette costs roughly $400, according to a 2017 video produced by Time Inc.’s personal finance firm, Coinage.

But, what if it were to be sold? What would it be worth? Well, only $1, according to the Academy. As per the rules, any Oscar given after 1950 cannot be sold unless the recipient or his or her heirs first agree to sell it to the Academy for $1.

However, some people have benefited hugely from the loophole by selling Oscar statues dated before 1950. At an auction in 2011, an anonymous buyer purchased Orson Welles’ best original screenplay Oscar for Citizen Kane. He paid $861,542 for it, which is over Rs 6.5 crore.

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For decades, Welles felt he had lost the Oscar, but it was restored in 1994. After a custody struggle, the statue was awarded to his daughter, Beatrice, and the statue was sold at auction.

Why is the Academy Award called Oscar?

Despite the fact that it first appeared as a knight figure in 1929, the Academy did not name its awards “Oscars” until 1939. Here’s how the name got its start, according to lore.

The Oscar was first formally known as the Academy Award of Merit, and MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the Academy’s founding members, was assigned the task of drawing a sketch of the statue. He started with a sword-wielding knight standing on a reel of film, with spokes signifying the Academy’s five branches: actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers.

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George Stanley, a fellow sculptor, redesigned the statue and refined the knight figure in 1928. Emilio “El Indio” Fernández, a Mexican model and actor, is said to have inspired him.

When Margaret Herrick, the Academy’s librarian and eventual executive director, first saw the revised statute, she thought it looked like her uncle Oscar.

Later, in 1934, American journalist Sidney Skolsky used the phrase in his Hollywood column to describe Katharine Hepburn’s first best actress victory, which popularised the term and led to its adoption by the Academy in 1939.

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The Oscars 2022 will begin at 5:30 am IST on Monday.