The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has a message for Heritage Auctions: Get your hands off our Emmy.
The Academy has filed a lawsuit against Heritage over its planned auction of deceased singer Whitney Houston‘s Emmy Award, according to court papers obtained by TheWrap.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in California, says that the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program that the Academy awarded to Houston in 1986 for her Grammys performance of “Saving All My Love for You” still belongs to the organization. According to the Academy, it only loans the statuettes to the recipients, and retains the ownership.