New Brunswick artist Suzanne Dupuis-Cormier is getting her sculpture back.

Dupuis-Cormier of Dieppe created a starfish sculpture that has been displayed outside a hospital in Caraquet for years.

But officials removed it last week, saying it was in deteriorating condition. Some of the fibreglass is now transparent, they said.

They sold it to a lawyer for $1.

Dupuis-Cormier objected to the cavalier treatment of her sculpture, which she said represents New Brunswick's Acadian culture and healing.

She asked for it back and the lawyer has agreed to return it to her.

"It's kind of too bad that it's not going to stay in its original place because that's where it was meant to be, by the sea and everything," she told CBC News.

"But I feel a lot better that I'm getting it back. I'm going to be the one that's going to decide what's going on with it from now on."

Dupuis-Cormier says a café with a gallery in Moncton has agreed to display her sculpture in front of the establishment.