What happens when an Oscar statue is stolen or lost like Jared Leto’s

When Whoopi Goldberg won a Best Supporting Actress in 1991 for “Ghost,” she surely had no idea her Oscar would end up in a trash can.

Goldberg had sent it to R.S. Owens & Company, the statue’s Chicago-based manufacturer, for a cleaning. But the box, which had been opened and resealed, arrived empty. The award was later found in a California airport garbage bin and the thief was never apprehended. “It’s interesting that stolen Oscars sometimes wind up in the garbage,” Jim Piazza, co-author of “Academy Awards: The Complete Unofficial History,” told The Post. “It’s as if they’re either priceless or worthless. The thieves, I think, tend to get cold feet.”