1942 Oscar trophy makes $89,625 at Heritage movie and music auction

An Oscar trophy from 1942 made $89,625 at Heritage Auctions' movie and music auction in Dallas on Friday July 29.

The best sound recording trophy was awarded to Nathan Levinson for his work on Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Its new owner, who is currently unknown, has a movie memorabilia item of great potential in their possession.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences enacted a rule in 1950 preventing Oscar statues from being sold without them first being offered back to the Academy for $1.

$89,625 can buy you an Oscar

This rule has ensured that those pre-1950 Oscar trophies that do appear at auction are highly coveted by collectors, and can show a significant rise in value over time.

Fewer than 3,000 statues have been presented since the Oscars began in 1929.

The world record price for an Academy Award stands at the $1.54m Michael Jackson paid in 1999 for David O Selznick's best film Oscar for Gone with the Wind.

The Heritage sale also featured a number of previously unseen photographs of Marilyn Monroe.

Taken by Hollywood photographer Richard Miller and dating back to 1946, the shots show a grinning 19 year old girl and offer little sense of the bombshell she would become.

Many of the individual photos made around $1,500, while a model release form Monroe signed in 1946, when she was known as Norma Jeane Dougherty, made $19,120.

Earlier this year Monroe's famous 'subway' white dress from The Seven Year Itch sold for a world record $5.6m from the Debbie Reynolds collection of movie memorabilia.

Check back here soon for more details from this fascinating auction.