article_snippet: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that presents the Oscars, purchased the spacecraft at auction Saturday for $344,000.
article_snippet: We're excited to add such an iconic piece of movie history to We collection," the motion picture academy told CNN in a statement.
article_snippet: A collector and former art teacher in the UK had kept it for the past 40 years.
article_snippet: A Space Odyssey" were destroyed by director Stanley Kubrick
article_snippet: so they could not be used in other productions, the auction house said.
highlights_snippet: A Space Odyssey" was purchased by the motion picture academy .
  
highlights_snippet: The 1968 classic is considered one of the most influential science-fiction movies ever .