Police in Los Angeles have arrested two employees of a shipping company in connection with the theft of 55 Oscar statuettes.

Three of the gold-plated Oscars are still missing, but the rest of the statuettes were found on Sunday night in a rubbish container.

LA police chief Bernard Parks and Robert Rehme, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, gave details of the arrests at a news conference.

Mr Parks said that two employees of Roadway Express Inc - the company which ships the Oscars from Chicago every year - were arrested on Saturday and were being held on a $100,000 bond.

The police said the men - Lawrence Ledent and Anthony Hart - stole the shipment of Oscars en route to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, hoping to sell them for huge profit.

But the publicity following the theft made that plan worthless, police said.

Mr Parks said the two suspects told police where they could find the missing Oscars - but police did not find them there.

Instead, 52 of the missing statuettes were found late on Sunday by a man rummaging through a skip in the city's Koreatown.

Willie Fullgear told CBS TV he found the Oscars still wrapped in plastic and in individual white boxes.

"I found a lot of white stuff out there which were a lot of Styrofoam boxes and I picked one up and busted it open - Oscar!" Mr Fullgear said.

It is not clear whether Mr Fullgear is eligible for a $50,000 reward.

The disappearance of the awards was the second hitch in the run-up to the Academy Awards.

Earlier this month, 4,000 ballots posted to voters in the Los Angeles area failed to arrive, and new ballots had to be sent out.