Winning an Academy Award doesn't just give a boost to the winner's ego. An Oscar statue also gives the victor more salary-negotiating power for future projects. The 24-karat gold-plated statues are worth around $900 each, based on current gold prices. And while it may seem crazy that the winners would ever part with their trophies, there have been many instances of old Oscar trophies going up for auction and fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Since 1950, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has made it a rule that anyone who tries to sell or auction off their award must first offer it to the academy for $1. Sorry, Jennifer Lawrence -- your trophy is worth only a buck on the open market. But that rule doesn't apply to trophies awarded before 1950.

Business Insider put together a chart featuring some of the most notable Oscar trophies that have been sold or auctioned off in recent years.

The priciest: The 1939 Academy Award for Best Picture given to the producers of "Gone With the Wind" was purchased by Michael Jackson in 1999 for $1,542,000. The Oscar for Best Screenplay awarded to Orson Welles for "Citizen Kane" sold for over $861,000.

Steven Spielberg (who has won three Oscars himself) purchased Clark Gable's Best Actor trophy for "It Happened One Night" for $607,500 and Bette Davis's Best Actress award for her work on "Jezebel" for $578,000. Spielberg then donated the trophies back to the Academy.

Here's hoping he got a tax deduction.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/2013-oscars/oscar-statue-worth-well-depends-220209550.html