Russian filmmaker Pasha Talankin, co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin, lost his Academy Award statuette after security officials at a New York airport prevented him from boarding with it.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin won Best Feature Documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. As per reports, Talankin shared that at a security checkpoint at JFK Airport on Wednesday, an official stopped him from carrying the approximately 3.8 kg statuette on board.

“It’s completely baffling how they consider an Oscar a weapon… I flew with it in the cabin, and there never was any kind of problem,” Talankin said from Frankfurt, Germany, where he arrived on Thursday on a Lufthansa flight.

Talankin further informed that he had travelled with the Oscar over a dozen times since winning it in March, without facing any issues.

A Lufthansa agent offered to escort Talankin to the gate and hold the Oscar during the flight, but the security official declined. A suggestion to store it in the cockpit was also rejected by airport security and a Lufthansa supervisor.

Executive producer Robin Hessman, who speaks Russian, assisted with translation during the discussions with airport and airline staff. With no alternative, Talankin was instructed to check the statuette in as cargo.

Airline staff bubble-wrapped the Oscar and placed it in a cardboard box, which he recorded on his phone. However, upon arrival in Frankfurt, the box was missing.

“He calls me this morning from Frankfurt saying Lufthansa doesn’t have it. They lost it,” Hessman said.

According to a statement given to Deadline, Lufthansa said, “We deeply regret this situation. Our team is treating this matter with the utmost care and urgency, and we are conducting a comprehensive internal search to ensure the Oscar is found and returned as quickly as possible.”

According to the news portal, living Oscar winners can contact the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to request a replacement statuette in rare cases where the award is lost or badly damaged.

Talankin, a former grade school teacher from an industrial Russian town, has been living in exile after refusing a Kremlin directive to introduce a nationalistic and militaristic curriculum in Russian schools following the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin, directed by David Borenstein and co-directed by Talankin, follows his transformation from a well-regarded school staff member to an outcast.