--- description: The Academy has right of first refusal on any Oscar Statue sold title: Court Rules Academy Can Reclaim Oscar Statue for $10 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef57dde08f5f87ac/69885f0735ba6f4d23c0ea12/oscar-statues.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Court Rules Academy Can Reclaim Oscar Statue for $10 by [Mary Sollosi / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Mary Sollosi / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 13, 2015 1:18 AM CUT  Nate Sanders displays the collection of Oscar statuettes that his auction company will sell online to the highest bidder on February 24, 2012 in Brentwood, Calif. Nate Sanders displays the collection of Oscar statuettes that his auction company will sell online to the highest bidder on February 24, 2012 in Brentwood, Calif.Toby Canham—Getty Images by [Mary Sollosi / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Mary Sollosi / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 13, 2015 1:18 AM CUT And the Oscar goes to… the Academy. For a mere $10. A California judge has ruled that nobody can sell an Oscar statuette without first offering the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the right of first refusal to purchase it. The rule, which has been in place since 1951, was upheld by Superior Court Judge Gail Ruderman Feuer after an auction house sold an Oscar statuette without the Academy’s permission. The Oscar, awarded to Joseph Wright for color art direction on 1942’s _My Gal Sal_, was purchased for $79,200 by a Los Angeles-based auction house. The court allowed the Academy to reclaim the statuette for $10. “The Oscar is perhaps the world’s most distinctive and prestigious award for achievement in the arts,” Gary E. Gans, the lawyer who successfully represented the Academy in the case, said in a statement. “This case established that the Academy can maintain the dignity and value of such an award by keeping it from becoming a commodity.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/12/academy-wins-oscar-statuette?hootPostID=bcb3f13352ff349a96e72924894df96e "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://ew.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3995583/academy-reclaim-oscar-10-dollars/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3995583/academy-reclaim-oscar-10-dollars/"},"headline":"Court Rules Academy Can Reclaim Oscar Statue for $10","datePublished":"2015-08-13T01:18:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:07:57.627Z","description":"The Academy has right of first refusal on any Oscar Statue sold","url":"https://time.com/3995583/academy-reclaim-oscar-10-dollars/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef57dde08f5f87ac/69885f0735ba6f4d23c0ea12/oscar-statues.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mary Sollosi / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef57dde08f5f87ac/69885f0735ba6f4d23c0ea12/oscar-statues.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Auctions Collection Academy Award Oscar statue","caption":"Auctions Collection Academy Award Oscar statue","creditText":"Toby Canham—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3995583/academy-reclaim-oscar-10-dollars/","name":"Court Rules Academy Can Reclaim Oscar Statue for $10"}}]}] ```