Every few years you hear a story about an old time actor that has hit hard times...or passed away, and the family is selling the Oscar they won at some auction.

Recently, I read that Orson Welles' personal working script of "Citizen Kane" sold for close to $100,000, but his Oscar for the 1941 classic was withdrawn after bidding failed to rise above the seller's minimum price.

This surprised me. Not that it didn't meet the price. But because every time an Oscar has been sold, the Academy jumps in and takes the little gold statue back.

Sotheby's, which ran this auction, said they'll probably sell it privately. It was estimated to bring in around a million bucks.

Recently, a judge was working on a case regarding film legend Mary Pickford, who was trying to sell two. One was an honorary Oscar in 1975 for her contributions to the film industry and the development of film as an artistic medium.

She was married to Douglas Fairbanks, who with him and Charlie Chaplin, founded United Artists studios.

Pickford died in 1979, and Beverly Rogers inherited the statues. The Academy has contractual right to buy the three statuettes if they are put up for sale, according to the Academy attorneys.

Attorney Christopher Tayback said "This prevents the Oscars frombeing spread around on eBay or something like that."

There are some unusual things in the Pickford case, though.

Beverly Rogers questioned the validity of Pickford's signature on the Oscar statuette sales agreement, but Buddy Rogers said before he died, that the signature was hers. In that agreement, Pickford had agreed to sell the Oscars for a mere $20, and the Academy offered her a sum "Very substantially above" that.

The amount thrown about most recently, was $500,000, which the Academy rejected.