An Oscar awarded to Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) is expected to realise $200,000-300,000 in a sale at Christie's New York on December 11.

Joan Fontaine received the best actress Oscar in 1941

Academy awards have been selling particularly well of late, with an Oscar awarded to songwriter Allie Wrubel for Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah achieving $125,000 at Nate D Sanders in September, an increase of 25% on a $100,000 estimate.

However, it's a complex area of collecting as technically all pre-1950 awards must be offered to the Academy for $1. This right was exercised in July, when a 1942 trophy was withdrawn from sale.  

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