MOVIES - Jan. 10, 1989

The “Best Picture” Oscar that producer Michael Todd won in 1956 for “Around The World in 80 Days” will go on the auction block next month, the owner of a Hollywood memorabilia shop said Monday. It will be the seventh such statuette auctioned by Collector’s Showcase, said store owner Malcolm Willits, who acknowledges that such transactions are controversial. “Selling your Oscar is a little like selling your child,” he said. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which annually presents the Oscars, frowns on the auctions. Academy spokesman Bruce Davis said, “We find this a very meloncholy turn of events.” The Academy feels that auctions commercialize the award. The Todd Oscar could bring as much as $40,000. The six previous Academy Awards that Willits has sold brought an average of $10,000 each. Willits’ usually gets the Oscars from relatives who have inherited them, and in most cases, the recipient is dead. Willit recently auctioned for $17,715 the 1941 set decoration Oscar given for “How Green Was My Valley.” In March, an Oscar for “The Diary of Anne Frank” (given to Lyle Wheeler and George W. Davis for black and white art direction) is due to be auctioned.