Anyone who wins an Oscars award tonight won't actually own it

The evening is finally upon us! Later on tonight (2 March), a small hoard of hugely-talented people will return home with a smile on their face and an Oscar in hand.

Did you know, however, that Academy Award winners aren't actually entitled to keep their prestigious accolades in their trophy cabinet full-time?

It's true - whilst actors and actresses might be able to reap the professional rewards of having an Oscar on their CV by landing even more impressive roles, or possibly by bagging a heavier pay-cheque, the physical awards won't actually belong to them.

Essentially, each 24-carat-gold-plated statuettes are handed out on loan to that year's lucky star, by the Academy.

Unlike borrowing a book from a library, film and TV stars won't be issued a return date for their achievements, with an indeterminate amount of time being given to them, as per Collider.

That doesn't mean the fate of the awards is to be decided to the recipient, however.

In fact, in 1951, organisers of the huge-name soiree implemented a super-strict policy, which prevented Oscar winners from '[selling] or otherwise dispose of the Oscar statuette, nor permit it to be sold or disposed of by operation of law'.

The agreement - which still requires the signature of each and every Academy Award nominee - added that winners would first have to '[offer] to sell it to the Academy for the sum of $1'.

As is also the case for 'the heirs and assigns of Academy Award winners who may acquire a statuette by gift or bequest'

Despite the contract still coming into play each and every year since, it is thought that some trophies are secretly sold by celebs, or bought by anonymous collectors, especially being that the rule doesn't apply to trophies handed out pre-1951.

Oscar winners don't actually get to keep their accolades (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

In fact, according to one expert, regardless of the '$1' warning, a handful of trophies have, in the past, gone for multiple-million dollars.

Caroline Ashleigh - an auctioneer and appraisal expert - previously told The Guardian: "I would say that approximately 150 statuettes have been sold either publicly or semi-secretly over the years.

"For prices from approximately $10,000 to $1.5m. And roughly a dozen lawsuits have been filed over potential sales of Oscar statuettes in recent history."

Amongst the most famous Oscar sales in history are the 1993 selling of Vivien Leigh's Best Actress accolade, which she won for her 1939 role in Gone With The Wind.

The prize sold that year for a mind-blowing $563,000.

Six years after Leigh's award was bought, late hit-maker Michael Jackson went on to purchase the film's Best Picture trophy for an even more staggering $1.54 million.