“Why is the Academy now demanding return of Houston’s Emmy when they did not stop over three dozen earlier public auctions of Emmy awards the past decade, nearly all of them awarded to white recipients?” the statement continued.
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The I Will Always Love You star’s accolade is set to hit the auction block on Friday (24Jun16), but executives at The Television Academy are reportedly planning to head to court on Wednesday (22Jun16) to block the sale.
“The 1986 Emmy awarded to Whitney Houston was consigned to our auction directly by her family”, he said in a statement.
Bosses at the Television Academy in the US have followed through their threat to sue over a planned auction of Whitney Houston’s Emmy Award. The gold statuette is the centerpiece of a legal war between the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and Heritage Auctions. Heritage also told the judge that the Academy didn’t establish rules reserving ownership rights until years after Houston won her Emmy, and that a sticker on the bottom of the statuette purporting to retain title couldn’t impose obligations on Houston and her heirs.
The singer was found dead at age 48 in a hotel room in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the eve of the 2012 Grammys.
Houston’s estate is selling the trophy, along with other highly valuable memorabilia, through Heritage Auctions.
Greg Rohan, president of Heritage Auctions, said the academy’s action is without merit and ignores precedent.
According to TMZ.com, Emmy winners sign agreements stating their heirs must “return the statuette to the Academy” following the death of the recipient, but a representative for the auction house reveals he has asked academy bosses to produce the agreement – and they haven’t. Now they’re attacking the poor Houston family. Why?
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Anderson’s ruling says the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has initially shown it owns the award, is likely to win the case and would suffer irreparable harm if the award was sold.
