And the Oscars go to 3 secret bidders

The largest collection of Oscar statuettes ever offered for public sale has been auctioned off for more than $3 million, a Brentwood auctioneer said Wednesday.


The 15 golden figures were sold to three individuals in a sale conducted online, said auctioneer Nate D. Sanders. The auctioneer would not disclose the identities of the bidders.


Thirteen of the statues were purchased by just one buyer.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-statues-sold-20120301,0,1575137.story

Oscars Auction Realize $3,060,089 Including Buyer's Premium

Oscars Auction Realize $3,060,089 Including Buyer's Premium

A record 15 Academy Award statuettes were sold to the highest bidders during an online and telephone sale conducted Tues. February 28th by Nate D. Sanders Auctions.

Click here to see final realized price http://www.hollywoodgoldenguy.com/Oscar_Auction_Prices.html

Nate D. Sanders to auction the largest collection of Oscars to ever go under the hammer

Nate D. Sanders to auction the largest collection of Oscars to ever go under the hammer

hile nominees for this year’s 84th Academy Awards are preparing their acceptance speeches, Nate D. Sanders is offering the most extraordinary collection of Oscars ever to hit the auction block with final bidding happening on February 28. 


Highlights of the exquisite collection estimated to sell for more than $1 million include Herman Mankiewicz’s 1941 Best Screenplay Academy Award for Citizen Kane, the 1933 Best Picture Oscar awarded to Cavalcade, groundbreaking cinematographer Gregg Toland‘s 1939 Oscar for Black & White Cinematography in Wuthering Heights, Charles Coburn’s 1943 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The More the Merrier- the first year that Best Supporting Actors were awarded statutes - and the first Oscar awarded for Special Effects to Farciot Edouart in 1938. 


”This is the most significant collection of Oscars to ever be auctioned. It contains Academy Awards from epic films such as Citizen Kane and The Best Years of Our Lives”, auction house owner Nate D. Sanders said. “Furthermore, Cavalcade is the earliest Best Picture Oscar to ever be offered in an auction.” 


http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=53779

The Academy Award for the original screenplay of "Citizen Kane" auctioned for more than $861,000.

The Academy Award statuette that Orson Welles won for the original screenplay of "Citizen Kane" was auctioned for more than $861,000 in Los Angeles.

The 1942 Oscar was thought to be lost for decades. It surfaced in 1994 when cinematographer Gary Graver tried to sell it. The sale was stopped by Beatrice Welles, Orson's youngest daughter and sole heir.

Magician David Copperfield was among those clamoring for the golden trophy, but he was the runner-up bidder for the Oscar, which sold to an undisclosed buyer for $861,542, Los Angeles auctioneer Nate D Sanders said.

The slightly tarnished Oscar for 1941 best screenplay is one of just a handful of illustrious Academy Award statues to sell for near the million-dollar mark.

eBay Banned List of Autograph Merchants

eBay has updated their banned authenticator list to include COAs from Nicholas Burczyk, Christopher Morales and TTA Authentic (formerly STAT Authentic).

Here is the full list of banned authenticators:

Autographed items with COAs and LOAs, or references to COAs and LOAs from the following people or organizations.

Coach's Corner Sports Auctions LLC

Christopher L. Morales

Donald Frangipani

Forensic Document Services

Hollywood Dreams

J. DiMaggio Co. / J. DiMaggio Company

Legends Sports Memorabilia

Nathan's Autographs / N.E. Autographs

Nicholas Burczyk

Pro Sports / Pro Sports Memorabilia

Robert Prouty

R.R.'s Sports Cards & Collectibles

SCAA / Front Page Art / Angelo Marino

Slamdunk Sportscards & Memorabilia

Sports Alley Memorabilia

Sports Management Group

Stan's Sports / Stans Sports Memorabilia

TTA Authentic (formerly STAT Authentic)

Universal Memorabilia

XMI Authentications

USA Authentics

Blank COAs and LOAs / COAs and LOAs as stand-alone items

COAs and LOAs from anyone listed on the FBI's Operation Bullpen website

Elizabeth Taylor MGM Loan Inter Office Communication

Elizabeth Taylor ORIGINAL 1949 MGM Inter Office Memo

Dated Octomber 17, 1949

An amazing piece of film history

This is an MGM Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inter-Office Communication

To: Mr. George Warren Subject: John Lund (Actor) a/c Paramount and Elizabeth Taylor (Actress)

This memo is outlining an agreement between Paramount Pictures Inc where MGM is loaning the services of Elizabeth Taylor for the role of "Angela" in their picture "A Modern Story". Her term commencing September 21st, 1949 to complete her role but no later than November 26, 1949.  In this agreement Paramount is loaning the services of John Lund to MGM for the role of "Douglas Morrison" in "The Dutchess of Idaho".  The document in four paragraphs outlines the terms of the exchange between Lund and Taylor. 

The film turned out to be"A Place in the Sun" aka "An American Tragedy" with Taylor as Angela Vickers.

This turned out to be one of the most one-sided exchanges in film history.

The document is an original and is from F.L. Hendrickson who was head of the legal department at MGM.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Elizabeth-Taylor-ORIGINAL-1949-MGM-Loan-Agreement-/130501786920?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e62833d28

1961 Technicolor Corp Academy Award Sold on eBay

A 1961 scientific and engineering Academy Awards was sold on eBay today.  The plaque style Academy Award was for Technicolor Corps  printing system that allowed editing, without cutting the negative, for 65 and 70mm Super Wide screen features such as WEST SIDE STORY, MY FAIR LADY and LAWRENCE OF ARABIA among others. The plaque design Academy Award sold for $4,150.00 the auction closed March 25, 2011.

This style plaque award was also used for for Best Supporting Actor/Actress, Editing, Special Effects, Sound and many other categories prior to being changed to the statuette design.

Plaster Oscar pulled From eBay at request of Academy

Plaster Oscar removed from ebay March 24, 2011

A plaster Oscar listed on eBay was recently removed by the owner at the request of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.  The plaster Oscar was claimed to be from the war years when Oscars were made from plaster for three years due to metal shortages.  After the war the recipients had the option to exchange their plaster one for metal, at which time the Academy destroyed the plaster statuette.  There are only two "known" to exist still today.  The term "known" really means plaster statuettes the Academy recognizes as genuine plaster Oscars from the era.  The Academy is known for bringing claim of infringement of copyright on any Oscar related memorabilia item they cannot independently verify having a hand in sanctioning.  Which roughly translates into, if they are not sure what it is you have than it is an unauthorized item.  Further the seller of any item flagged by the Academy will be asked to surrender the item to the Academy via their general legal counsel Quinn Emanuel.  Academy Assistant General Counsel Scott Miller has boasted in interviews that he keeps a collection of seized Oscars in his office.

This is not to say the Oscar listed on eBay was in anyway illegitimate, however records of an item such as a plaster Oscar were not kept.  Nor were the plaster Oscars marked in any way to identify them as such.  This seems to be one major problem with unusual Oscar memorabilia.  The Academy seems to lack records and or an unwillingness to provide any relevant data towards perpetuating the sale of memorabilia.

Below is the original listing description:

This item came from the estate of an entertainment producer.  The Academy Award is made of plaster (which was done during the WWII years); the base is wood, and there is no nameplate on the statuette.  As you can see, there is some splitting to the plaster, but I have been told that this can easily repaired by a restoration expert.

Elizabeth Taylor Memorabilia A Hot Commodity

A trend common with many high profile deaths holds true for Elizabeth Taylor.  Seven of her movies, including "Cleopatra," "Suddenly, Last Summer" and "National Velvet,"  were among the  top 100 bestsellers on Amazon.com over the last two days.  Also, the number of items sold on eBay with the words "Elizabeth Taylor" in the title shot up by 1600 percent Thursday, compared to last week, and the number of live listings with the words "Elizabeth Taylor" in the title increased by 24 percent Thursday since last week, CBS News National Correspondent Ben Tracy reports.  There is a lot of nostalgia generated by this," says People Magazine Executive Editor JD Heyman . "A lot of interest in ... her romances, her jewels and certainly, the movies she made."

Elizabeth Taylor Andy Warhol Could Bring $30 Million

An Andy Warhol original Elizabeth Taylor portrait could sell for $30 million at a Christie's auction in May, according to several reports. The painting will be put up for auction on May 12 at Christie's. A Hedge-fund manager Steve Cohen bought the rarely seen "Liz #5" silkscreen painting in 2005 for an undisclosed amount, according to the Wall Street Journal.Cohen reportedly elected to put the painting up for auction two weeks before Taylor's death. According a spokesperson for London based Christie's in statement to the L.A. Times "The events are not connected," referring to the sale of the Warhol in proximity to Taylor's passing. Warhol painted a series of Elizabeth Taylor portraits in 1963.  Christie's sold actor Hugh Grant's 1963 Warhol portrait of Taylor, "Liz," for $23.5 million four years ago, the Journal reported.