The iconic little golden man design of the highest honor in Hollywood, the “Oscar Academy Award,” where did the inspiration come from? For nearly a century, this has always been an unsolved mystery.
Recently, at the Frieze Masters in London, a 2700-year-old ancient Egyptian bronze statue, which was sold, unexpectedly uncovered an astonishing coincidence spanning thousands of years.
This bronze statue represents Ptah, the supreme creator god, craftsman, and architect in ancient Egyptian mythology.
According to a report from a European news outlet on October 19th, the former owner of this bronze statue was the media tycoon William Randolph Hearst.
The designer of the Oscar statuette in 1928 was Cedric Gibbons, the art director of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who happened to be a good friend of Hearst.
Antique dealer Rupert Wace revealed that the Oscar designer used to visit Hearst’s mansion frequently, and Hearst happened to have a room dedicated to collecting ancient Egyptian artifacts in his New York residence.
Wace stated that he discovered the connection between these two artworks while researching the origin of this piece before the art exhibition.
Unfortunately, the designer, Gibbons, passed away in 1960 without ever publicly confirming the inspiration behind the golden statue. But when these two statues are placed side by side, both in terms of form and expression, they exhibit striking similarities.
Wace admitted that in a sense, all of this is speculation and cannot be confirmed, but the coincidence of the right person seeing this statue at the right time is truly intriguing.
Setting aside the historical aspect, this ancient Egyptian deity statue crafted during the Achaemenid period, before the Persian Empire conquered Egypt, is already a world-class masterpiece. The fact that Hollywood’s involvement adds an extra layer of significance to it, according to Wace.
The statue was sold on the opening day of the Frieze Masters exhibition, but the final transaction price was not disclosed.