Just seems so stupid to destroy a piece of history, fair enough it may have once been common practise but to destroy a piece of film from that ers today is just ridiculous…
George Lucas has made it expressly clear that he places no value on those celluloid artefacts. Fans who politely dared to raise the issue were told to grow up and received a reminder that he owned the franchise, not them. In interviews he has claimed that the originals are “half completed” films, that, as far as he is concerned, no longer exist (and Lucas has certainly worked hard to make that a reality). When the DVDs were released, he was kind enough to inform us that we can find the earlier versions on VHS - if we just might happen to want them.