LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Oscar award market continues to be red-hot, with Joan Crawford's Best Actress Oscar for 1945s “Mildred Pierce” selling today for a record price of $426,732.

Nate Sanders, owner of Nate D. Sanders Auctions, said, "This is a phenomenal result for a Best Actress Oscar, and continues the collecting trend of entertainment awards. Academy Awards, of course, remain extremely popular, as do Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards. People are just captivated with the beauty and uniqueness of these awards, and the fact that they carry a great story of honoring the best in artistry, personally owned by a legend such as Joan Crawford is exciting."

"This Oscar carries with it a fascinating story as well, and represents Joan Crawford's gutsy comeback in the industry that labeled her 'box office poison' several years earlier. It's really one of the most spectacular Oscars in existence."

Though her role as Mildred Pierce was considered the tour-de-force performance of her career, Crawford and many others didn't think she'd win the Best Actress nod, largely because of her somewhat difficult reputation and she was up against favorite Ingrid Bergman. Though she famously felt she deserved the Oscar, since she didn't think she’d win it, Crawford pretended to be ill and stayed home the night of the ceremony on 7 March 1946. When her name was called, her director, Michael Curtiz accepted the Oscar on her behalf with Crawford listening to the broadcast on her radio. Later that night, she invited reporters to photograph her accepting her award from her bedroom.

Upon receiving this Oscar, Crawford was famously quoted, "Whether the Academy voters were giving the Oscar to me, sentimentally, for Mildred or for 200 years of effort, the hell with it - I deserved it."