A federal judge made the final decision that Whitney Houston’s Emmy will not be auctioned off after the Television Academy said that it’s against one of their rules.
Earlier this month (June), it was reported that several of Houston’s items would be auctioned off on behalf of her estate by Heritage Auctions. Among those items was her one and only Emmy, won for her 1986 Grammy Awards performance.
Television Academy gave pushback saying that their rules, which Houston had agreed to by signing, stated that if the family or heir does not want the Emmy, it must be returned to the Academy. Heritage said that unless they could produce the document, they would move forward on the auction. The Emmy wasn’t on site, but in a catalogue of items with a starting bid of $10,000.
The Academy didn’t take this lightly and filed a lawsuit of theft against Heritage. A federal judge has decided to shut down the auction and Heritage will return the Emmy to the Houston family. The decision came after a fan has already made that initial bid.