“Thank you to the people of Yakutia for this wonderful gift, especially all of the women who gathered and donated the materials that went into creating the statue. As they wrote in their letter, Yakutia is home to the coldest inhabited place not only in Russia, but also on Earth – and the region is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures pose a major threat to its people, their way of life and their natural habitat,” the Oscar-winning actor wrote on his Instagram.
The silver and gold statue was melted into the shape of the coveted Oscar statuette, with a few upgrades. For example, instead of the traditional gold man holding a sword, this one has Mongol features and holds a golden "choron" – a traditional Yakut goblet.
Another difference is that the Yakutian Oscar’s head is looking upward rather than down.
DiCaprio’s Siberian female fans had collected almost 1.4 kilos of silver and four grams of gold for the choron.
On February 28 Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant, took home his first-ever Academy Award, winning Best Actor for his role as real-life 19th-century fur trapper Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a bear and left for dead.
The role also brought him honors at the Golden Globes and the US Critics' Choice Award.
