The Academy Award of Merit, known around the world as the Oscar, was first presented at the first Academy Awards on May 16, 1929. MGM art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the Academy's founding members, sketched the design during the Academy's early board meetings: a knight holding a crusader's sword, standing on a reel of film. Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley turned the sketch into a three dimensional sculpture.

The film reel beneath the knight has five spokes, one for each of the Academy's five original branches: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. The statuette stands 13.5 inches tall and weighs 8.5 pounds. The first statuettes were gold plated bronze, and later versions were made of other metals with gold plating; today's statuette is again cast solid in bronze and finished in 24 karat gold, closer to Stanley's original Art Deco sculpture. During World War II, when metal was scarce, the Academy presented statuettes made of painted plaster for…