Auctioned Oscar Will Be Sold For $10 After Legal Fight

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has signed an agreement allowing the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to buy a 1940s-era Oscar statuette that had been auctioned last year without its permission.

The settlement agreement signed on Tuesday calls for the academy to purchase Joseph Wright's Oscar statuette for his color art direction of the 1942 film "My Gal Sal" for $10. The Wright Oscar was sold by a Rhode Island auction house in June 2014 for $79,200.

The academy sued and recently entered into a settlement with the winning bidder, Los Angeles-based auction house Nate D. Sanders.

An academy rule enacted in 1951 prevents winners or their heirs from selling Oscar statuettes without first offering them to the organization for $10. Wright died in 1985.

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