The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the bestowers of the Academy Awards, is filing suit in Los Angeles Superior Court to block the sale of Oscar statuettes that originally belonged to silent film stars Mary Pickford and Charles “Buddy” Rogers.
According to a story in the Hollywood Reporter, the Academy has filed the injunction against the estate of Beverly Lorraine Rogers, the late wife of Buddy Rogers, to prevent its three co-executors from selling the statuettes to anyone. The Academy is also asking the court to grant them the right to repurchase them from the estate for the price of $10 per statuette.
According to a stipulation enacted by the Academy in 1950, Oscar winners and their heirs are prohibited from selling the famous gold awards without first selling them back to the Academy for the nominal sum of $1.00. This controversial rule does not apply to Academy Awards won before 1950, and several older Oscars have been sold at auction and by private dealers for sums in the six-figure range.
Rogers, who passed away in 1999, was previously married to Pickford for 41 years until her death in 1979. Rogers received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy in 1986. Pickford won a Best Actress Oscar in 1930 for work on Coquette. She was also given an honorary Oscar in 1976 for her entire body of silent film work.
It is unknown if the Academy is trying to include Pickford’s pre-1950 ban Oscar for Coquette in the injunction.
