CHECK – Was an Oscar really discovered in the ashes of a house in Los Angeles?

“A strong symbol of the timeless magic of cinema”, some accounts on social networks marvel. In the middle of the charred rubble, a photo of an Oscar covered in soot, but almost intact, was taken. The image received more than 9,000 “likes” on this Instagram account of a French film information site (new window)and more than 200,000 on the account of Italian actress Isabella Rossellini (new window)daughter of Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini, stating that “his brother sent him this heartbreaking photo he found.” In other publications, the Oscar is even presented as belonging to Robert Redford (new window)rewarded in 1981 with the golden statuette for best director.

Theoretically, an Oscar could withstand high temperatures, but with significant limitations. The Oscar statuettes are made of solid bronze and plated with a layer of 24-carat gold. (new window) since 2017. Before this date, they were composed mainly of britannium, an alloy of tin, copper and antimony. Britishium (new window) can melt around 225 degrees. It’s much more for bronze (new window)and gold (new window)which do not melt until 1035 and 1064 degrees respectively. Older statuettes were also made of a wooden base, and therefore very flammable.

Many users marveled at this discovery, others spoke of a false image generated by artificial intelligence, as was the case for many images around the fires in Los Angeles (new window).

Apparent inconsistencies in the image

By carrying out a reverse image search to find the origin of this photo, the Verifiers team was able to find a post on Reddit, an American community discussion website, dating from January 12 and entitled “Symbolism” (new window). The image is much wider (new window) and includes details not visible in the version relayed on social networks.

In particular, we discover inconsistencies at the level of a fence above the statuette, as well as a mention “Tius” at the very bottom of the image which could be similar to a signature of the author. Furthermore, the base, appearing to be made of stone, does not correspond to a known version of a classic Oscar, generally made of raw brass and plated with black nickel.

Finally, the lower right tibia is not domed, unlike the real models. All of these elements could be characteristic of an image generated by artificial intelligence, although nothing confirms this with certainty.

The topic of discussion around this image was in any case closed by Reddit (new window) for relaying an “AI-generated” image. The community site, however, does not detail how it assessed that the image was not authentic. The Verifiers team contacted the author of the image to confirm that the image was indeed a graphic creation, but has not yet received a response.

Robert Redford’s team denies, no winner has come forward

In any case, this object does not belong to Robert Redford, according to one of his representatives who spoke to the American site Entertainment Weekly (new window). “He lives in Santa Fe [au Nouveau-Mexique, à plus de 1300 kilomètres de Los Angeles]it’s not his Oscar”. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, administrator of the Oscars, also affirmed that “Any Oscar winner whose statuette was destroyed in the fires can contact us, and we will be absolutely happy to replace it”. The Verifiers team found no reports of any winner claiming to have lost one of their Oscars.

The recent wildfires in Los Angeles, which killed at least 25 people and destroyed more than 12,000 homes (new window)resulted in the postponement of Oscar nominations until Thursday, January 23 (new window) as well as its traditional nominees lunch initially scheduled for February 10.

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