Mary Astor's 1941 Oscar sold for $171,000 in online auction

An excellent result for Mary Astor's 1941 Oscar leaves Golden Globe awards trailing

An online auction of entertainment memorabilia has seen Mary Astor's 1941 Oscar award sell for $171,089, leaving Golden Globes and Tony Awards in the dust.

Other trophies are slowly rising in value to meet that of the Oscar awards

The July 31 sale saw Astor's award gain 12 bids, with a minimum bid of just $1,000 set by the auction house. Mary Astor was presented with the best supporting actress award for her performance in 1941's The Great Lie, in which she played Sandra alongside George Brent and Bette Davis. The trophy stands as her only Academy Award win, despite The Maltese Falcon - in which she also starred - being released in the same year.

The 1942 Academy Award ceremony also saw Orson Welles presented with the best writing (original screenplay) award for Citizen Kane. That same award was sold for $841,542 with the same auction house in December 2011.

The auction's second highest bids went to the Golden Globe award presented to Barbara Stanwyck for her best supporting actress role in The Thorn Birds - the second most successful mini-series of all time. With the engraved plaque removed from the base, it sold for $30,768.

Also featuring was the 1965 Tony Award which Zero Mostel secured as best actor in a musical for his role as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. It sold for an identical sum to the Golden Globe award, accompanied by a brilliant and humorous letter of provenance from Mostel's son, Tobias.

The auction's results support the prediction made by Paul Fraser Collectibles prior to the sale. We anticipated that values for Golden Globes and other awards would be increasing steadily as the limited supply of Oscar awards begins to run dry. The $30,768 achieved by Stanwyck's Golden Globe displays a 26.5% increase on the $24,320 seen in 2011 by Marlon Brando's best actor award for The Godfather - a much more significant trophy.

The current world record for an Oscar at auction is $1.54m, which was paid by Michael Jackson in 1999 for David O Selznick's best film award for Gone with the Wind The Golden Globe world record stands with the one awarded to Elizabeth Taylor in 1973 for being a "world film favourite", which sold for $43,520 in December 2011.

Paul Fraser Collectibles has a stunning selection of movie memorabilia currently available. This pair of jodhpurs was worn by Mary Astor's Maltese Falcon co-star, Humphrey Bogart, in one of his earliest stage performances.

Recent and related articles

·  Jim Henson's first pitch for Muppet Show pilot re-offered in online sale | 26 July 2012

·  Welles' Citizen Kane Trophy brings $275,544 | 29 June 2012

·  John Wayne 'Grit' eyepatch to appear at auction | 28 May 2012

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Images: Nate D Sanders