Little-known agreement celebs must sign if they win an Oscar

Ahead of this weekend's Academy Awards (2 March), all nominated movie and television stars up for an accolade have reportedly been made to sign an uber-strict contract.

In doing so - according to The Guardian and other outlets - nominees are agreeing not to do one specifically controversial act if they're lucky enough to win the prize.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the contractual agreement, it's important to take a trip back to Los Angeles in March 2000.

That year, three weeks ahead of the 72nd Oscars ceremony, each 24-carat-gold-plated statuette trophy - of which there was a total of 55, inscribed with the winners' names - mysteriously vanished.

The awards had been shipped from Chicago by the accolade's manufacturer to Hollywood, but never reached the bright lights of the big city.

The scandal hit headlines across the globe, and even prompted Academy bosses to offer a staggering $50,000 for any information on the awards' whereabouts. Even the FBI got involved!

Some weeks later, the crime was uncovered. A couple of delivery workers had stumbled across the trophies whilst sorting through crates, believing they'd be able to sell the gold on for more cash.

Unfortunately for the loud-mouthed pair, however, police eventually caught wind of their plans and the pair were arrested.

It turns out, however, that if the deliverymen had been successful in their sales of the 55 trophies, they'd have only walked away with $55.

'But, they're solid gold,' I hear you point out. 'Surely they'd be worth more than that?'

Well, apparently not.

Oscar winners are forbidden from selling their accolades (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)

In 1951 - fifty years prior to the case of the missing Oscars - Academy Award organisers implemented a policy, whereby winners would agree not to 'sell or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law'.

It added that winners would first have to '[offer] to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1'.

Despite the contract still coming into play each and every year since, it is thought that some trophies are secretly sold by celebs, or bought by anonymous collectors.

And regardless of the '$1' warning, some experts have said that a handful of trophies have, in the past, gone for multiple-million dollars.

Auctioneer and appraisal expert Caroline Ashleigh previously told press: "I would say that approximately 150 statuettes have been sold either publicly or semi-secretly over the years.

"For prices from approximately $10,000 to $1.5m. And roughly a dozen lawsuits have been filed over potential sales of Oscar statuettes in recent history."

The more you know, eh?