Russian director Pavel Talankin‘s missing Oscar statuette for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” has been found, a spokesperson for airline Lufthansa told Variety Friday.
The Oscar went missing on Wednesday after Talankin, who co-directed the documentary with David Borenstein and is also the film’s protagonist, was stopped from taking it on board a plane bound for Frankfurt, Germany by a security official at New York’s John F Kennedy airport.
The agent had argued that the statuette could be used as a weapon and it would have to go in the hold. As Talankin didn’t have a bag for the hold, the Oscar was put into a cardboard box. When he arrived in Germany the Oscar was gone.
“The Oscar statue has now been located and is safely in our care in Frankfurt,” Lufthansa told Variety, adding that the airline was in direct contact with Talanki to reunite him with his Oscar “as quickly as possible.”
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner. The careful and secure handling of our guests’ belongings is of the utmost importance to us. An internal review of the circumstances is ongoing.”
On Thursday, Borenstein posted about the incident on Instagram.
He wrote: “Yesterday [Talankin] arrived at JFK ready to fly home to Europe, carrying the Oscar as a carry-on […] At the airport, a [Transportation Security Administration] agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon. She wouldn’t let him carry it on board.”
He explained that Robin Hessman, one of the film’s executive producers, “got on the phone and tried to reason with the agent, but it didn’t work.”
He added, “Pavel didn’t have a bag to check it in, so the TSA put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane. […] It never arrived in Frankfurt. […]
“I’ve looked and I can’t find a single other case of someone being forced to check an Oscar. Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor? Or a fluent English speaker?”
