HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A 40-foot sculpture in rural Maryland of three New York City firefighters raising the U.S. flag at ground zero is being offered on eBay, but there's a catch: You can't take it home.

Bidding on the towering tribute to heroes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will start Wednesday and end May 22, said Pat Huddleston, a Marietta, Ga., attorney who is the court-appointed receiver in an investment fraud case involving the sculpture. The auction will start at $500,000, he said.

Huddleston said proceeds from the Internet auction will benefit defrauded investors. The buyer will be recognized on a plaque as having donated the statue to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit in Emmitsburg that memorializes fire heroes.

Huddleston turned to eBay after trying for more than two years to sell the bronze-and-steel statue for at least $425,000. The highest offer he got was $10,000. Sculptor Stanley Watts of Kearns, Utah, valued the piece in 2006 at $4.8 million. Huddleston speculated that the financial meltdown deterred would-be buyers, and that some balked because the money wouldn't aid the Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

The piece was commissioned by Coadum Advisors, which the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in 2008 fraudulently raised $30 million from more than 150 investors in a Ponzi scheme — illegally using money from new investors to pay earlier ones. The SEC says Coadum paid Watts $300,000 to sculpt the piece and then donated it to the Fallen Firefighters as a tax dodge.