Most people know Michael Jackson won plenty of awards of his own. What fewer people know is that he once owned an Oscar too. And not just any Oscar.
Back on June 12, 1999, there was an auction at Sotheby’s in New York. Up for sale was a real Academy Award, the gold statuette itself. Michael didn’t show up in person. He bid over the phone, and he won it for about 1.54 million dollars.
That number still stands as a record. Guinness World Records lists it as the most anyone has ever paid for an Oscar.
The movie that Oscar belonged to
This is the film, and if you’re over 50 there’s a good chance you’ve seen it. Watch the trailer and see if you can name it before the title card.
The Oscar Michael bought was the Best Picture award for “Gone with the Wind.” Yes, that one. The 1939 epic with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, one of the most beloved and most watched movies in American history. It won Best Picture at the 1940 ceremony, and decades later its top prize somehow ended up in Michael Jackson’s hands.
You might be wondering how that’s even allowed. The Academy has a strict rule now. If you win an Oscar, you can’t just turn around and sell it to the highest bidder. But that rule came along later. This particular statuette was handed out before the no-resale rule existed, so it was free to be sold. That’s the loophole that let Michael buy it.
Here’s where the story takes a strange turn.
Nobody seems to know where that Oscar is today.
Years after Michael was gone, a lawyer for his estate was asked about it. The answer was simple and a little stunning. In plain words, the lawyer said, “The estate does not know where the Gone With the Wind statuette is.”
A golden award, one of the most valuable ever sold, bought by one of the most famous men on earth. And at some point it simply slipped out of sight.
Where did it go? Was it tucked away in storage and forgotten, or handed to someone for safekeeping? No one has said for sure. For now it’s a real Hollywood mystery with Michael Jackson’s name attached to it.
The film it came from is still easy to find, of course. The trailer above gives you a taste of why “Gone with the Wind” meant so much to so many people, and why its Best Picture Oscar was worth a small fortune.
Give it a watch, and see the classic behind the missing prize.