July 20,  2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  John Pavlik - (310) 247-3000

Beverly Hills, CA - For the second time in five years, Steven Spielberg has purchased an Oscar^® statuette at auction and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, this time with Bette Davis' 1938 Best Actress Academy Award for "Jezebel."

Academy President Robert Rehme said today that Steven Spielberg has presented Bette Davis' Oscar, which he purchased at a Christie's auction yesterday morning (7/19), to the Academy Foundation.

In 1996, Spielberg anonymously purchased Clark Gable's 1934 Oscar for "It Happened One Night" to protect it from further commercial exploitation, commenting that he could think of "no better sanctuary for Gable's only Oscar than the Motion Picture Academy."

Yesterday morning he similarly rescued Bette Davis' second Oscar.

"For Steven to do this once was breathtaking," Rehme said, "but for him to do it again is unbelievable. It is a noble and extremely generous act."

"The Academy Award is a highly-respected honor within the film community," he added. "It is not just a trophy handed out on a televised show or another piece of movie memorabilia. It has a deep-seated significance to those who win it and those of us who make our living in the industry don't like to think of it as an item that might end up on the mantel of someone who hadn't earned it."

Academy Executive Administrator Ric Robertson said that the Academy does not expect to be able to entirely prevent the commercial exploitation of early Oscar statuettes. "The first one to be auctioned was in 1949 and in response we instituted the 'Winners Agreement' that is now standard," Robertson said.

In the agreement, which must be signed by Oscar winners before their name will be engraved on the statuette, winners agree "not to sell or otherwise dispose of" the Oscar statuette without first offering to sell it to the Academy for a dollar.

Robertson said the Academy will continue to object to the sale of Oscar statuettes and will "throw legal impediments in the way at every opportunity."