A man has been arrested for allegedly stealing Frances McDormand's Best Actress Oscar.

The Academy Award was said to have been taken at the Governors Ball party after the Hollywood ceremony.

Los Angeles Police Department said Terry Bryant, 47, had been arrested on suspicion of felony grand theft.

He had a ticket for the ball and is being held in custody on $20,000 bail, an LAPD spokeswoman said.

McDormand received the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a vengeance-seeking mother in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

New York Times reporter Cara Buckley, who was at the Governors Ball, claimed a man had "grabbed" the award and "ran out with it".

She said a photographer working for celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck stopped the alleged thief and seized the Oscar.

US media reported that McDormand was seen crying outside the ball after giving up the search for the statuette on the premises and leaving with her husband, filmmaker Joel Coen.