Eight Times Academy Awards Trophies Have Gone Missing

The coveted Oscars trophy has a long and rich history of going missing, for reasons ranging from burglary and ransom to simple misplacement - even pranks. US actors Angelina Jolie, Jared Leto, Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges have all admitted to losing track of their gilded Academy Awards over the years.

One Oscar statuette was recovered this week after its winner was forced to check the trophy at a New York airport. Security officials told its owner, Mr Nobody Against Putin documentarian Pavel Talankin, that it could be used as weapon and couldn't be transported in his carry-on luggage. The trophy was eventually found by Lufthansa, which said the airline is in direct contact with Talankin to arrange the statue's return.

It's the latest instance of the iconic statuettes vanishing and turning up in unexpected ways - if at all. Here are a few other recent cases of missing Oscars, and the occasional mishaps that led to their recovery.

Oscars lost in the Los Angeles wildfires can be replaced

Four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood left three of her statuettes, along with three Baftas and two Emmy Awards, behind when her Pacific Palisades home was evacuated during the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles last year. While her Oscar for Chicago was safely on display at the film academy's museum, the bronze-filled trophies she earned for her work on Memoirs of a Geisha and Alice in Wonderland completely melted, and the Oscar for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was barely recognisable after its golden overcoat was charred away in the blaze that incinerated her home.

After the fires, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said it would repair or replace statuettes belonging to living winners in cases of catastrophic loss or severe damage, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Frances McDormand's was stolen from the Governors Ball

A man was arrested on suspicion of stealing the statue engraved with Frances McDormand's name from the Governors Ball after the 2018 Academy Awards. The Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri star reported it missing that night and it was promptly returned to the best actress winner. Los Angeles police said the man had a ticket to the ball, which is the official formal dinner after the ceremony. Despite his arrest, prosecutors ultimately dropped the case in August 2019.

Two of the Weinstein Company Oscars went missing

A 2018 Vanity Fair feature about the downfall of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein contained a fleeting detail about two statuettes that the Weinstein Company won back-to-back for The King's Speech and The Artist. The statues allegedly went missing from the company's New York offices and the whereabouts of those Oscars appear to be unknown. Weinstein, who has been imprisoned for rape offences, was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on in 2017 after a number of sexual harassment and assault allegations were lodged against him.

Jared Leto couldn't find his for six years

In 2021, Dallas Buyers Club star Jared Leto revealed that his 2014 Oscar disappeared during a move. Separated from it for at least six years, the prize eventually resurfaced in 2024, when he triumphantly posed with the recovered trophy on social media.

Matt Damon's vanished in a flood

The Good Will Hunting screenwriter said in 2007 that a flood in his New York flat led to his statue's disappearance. "I know it ended up at my apartment in New York, but unfortunately we had a flood when one of the sprinklers went off when my wife and I were out of town and that was the last I saw of it," Damon told the London Daily Express. He also said that the trophy could have been packed away into storage by someone cleaning out his place, but that it also could have been taken.

Whoopi Goldberg's Oscar disappeared when she sent it for a cleaning

The Ghost supporting actress lost her Oscar in 2002 when she shipped it to the statue-maker RS Owens & Company in Chicago for a cleaning. But the company never received the statuette, finding the package it was posted in empty upon its arrival four days later. An airport security guard in Ontario, California, later found the missing Oscar. Someone apparently opened the box, removed the statue and resealed the package, her spokesman said. Goldberg vowed that the statue would never leave her house again.

Olympia Dukakis had hers ransomed

Moonstruck supporting actress Olympia Dukakis' statuette was stolen from her home and the thief tried to ransom it. But Dukakis didn't play ball, opting instead to purchase a replacement from the academy for $78.

Dozens were discovered in a California rubbish bin

A large shipment of 52 statuettes was discovered in a rubbish bin behind a laundromat in Los Angeles by a repairman, who stumbled across the trophies in 10 unmarked packing crates in 2000, according to the New York Times.