Daily Times

It is the most coveted trophy in the world of entertainment but the Oscar statue itself is worth only $10.

The making of the Oscar statue costs $400 but as per a rule, before a trophy can be put up for auction, it must first be offered to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for $10, reported Entertainment Weekly.

Oscar-winner Steven Spielberg, who is one of the supporters of this rule, spent $1.36 million on Oscars belonging to Bette Davis and Clark Gable, only to donate them back to the Academy.

The rule was also upheld in a court ruling in 2015.

To prevent information identifying the Oscar winners from leaking ahead of the ceremony, Oscar statuettes presented at the ceremony have blank base plates. Until 2010, winners were expected to return the statuettes to the Academy after the ceremony and wait several weeks to have inscriptions applied. Since 2010, winners have had the option of having engraved nameplates applied to their statuettes at an inscription-processing station at the Governor’s Ball, a party held immediately after the Oscar ceremony. In 2010, the RS Owens company made 197 engraved nameplates ahead of the ceremony, bearing the names of every potential winner. The 175 or so nameplates for non-winning nominees were recycled afterwards.

Since 1950, the statuettes have been legally encumbered by the requirement that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for $1.