Is it permissible to sell an expensive statue, which a Muslim bought unaware of the prohibition of statues, to a non-Muslim in order to recover its price?

It is not permissible to acquire statues or to buy and sell them if they are of animate beings. What is obligatory is to destroy them or alter their features, whether they are sold to a Muslim or a disbeliever. However, if they are of inanimate objects, such as trees, then there is no harm in them.