The statue briefly stood outside the Philadelphia gallery in 1990

The statue depicts Sylvester Stallone as the fictional boxer with arms aloft.

Philadelphia's Art Commission has voted for it to be placed outside the city's Museum of Art, where Rocky was seen running up steps and punching the air.

But commission member Moe Brooker, who voted against, said: "It's not a work of art and it doesn't belong there."

The commission voted 6-2 in favour of placing the statue on ground level near the steps.

The other member to oppose the plan, University of the Arts president Miguel Angel Corzo, questioned whether Rocky deserved to be placed near works such as Rodin's The Thinker.

'Cultural icon'

The decision went against the commission's desire to "raise the standards of the city", he told the Associated Press news agency.

But commissioner Emanuel Kelly, who voted in favour, said the statue represented a "cultural icon" that had stood the test of time over 30 years.

The museum's steps were used for a scene in the first Rocky film in 1976.

The statue then appeared in Rocky III in 1982 and 1990's Rocky V, and it is also being used in a new instalment, Rocky Balboa, due for release at the end of the year.