The soon to open Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—or simply, the Oscars Museum—is getting seriously closer to its goal of becoming the “world’s leading movie museum.”

The museum has received donations from Hollywood luminaries such as director Brett Ratner ($ 1 million) and producer David Geffen ($25 million) according to the Hollywood Deadline.

And it is putting its funds to good use. The organization has already begun building a top-drawer collection to fill its six-storied space designed by Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali, slated to open in early 2017 on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax.

The latest addition to the permanent collection will have fans world-wide abuzz with excitment: it’s an extremely rare model from the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

AMPAS acquired the one-of-a-kind visual-effects model of the Aries 1B Trans-Lunar Space Shuttle from the landmark 1968 film at auction for $344,000.

visual-effects model of the Aries 1B Trans-Lunar Space Shuttle used in shooting 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Image: via Deadline.com

The model is particularly unique since Kubrick intentionally destroyed almost all of the props, sets, costumes, and models from the film to prevent them from re-appearing in other motion pictures.

The HD reports that the reason this model still exists is because it was given to an art teacher in the 1970s under an agreement to remove the electronics from the shuttle and teach his students about the technology.

Reportedly in “amazingly good condition,” the item measures approximately 32 inches high, 27 wide and 28 deep, and has a diameter of 94 inches.

Though he has been nominated for several Academy Awards throughout his career, including one for Best Director, Kubrick’s only Oscar was awarded in 1969 for special effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Kubrick didn’t show up to collect his golden statue; presenters Diahann Carroll and Burt Lancaster quipped that it would be sent to Mars, where Kubrick was “scouting locations for the sequel 2002: Space Odyssey Revisited”).

Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Image: indiewire.com

But, amassing a museum worthy display of Tinseltown memorabilia won’t be an easy task. Some of the best items from Hollywood’s iconic past have long been auctioned-off and are in private hands all over the world.

Yet the cultural significance of artifacts from the field of enterntainment has been recently cemented by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which has  accepted a donation of props, costumes, and other objects from the AMC series Mad Men. (see Mad Men Artifacts Join Collection at National Museum of American History).

Designed by Renzo Piano, the six storied Academy Museum was greenlighted by the Academy’s Board of Governors in October 2012.
Image: Oscars.org