A pair of iconic ruby slippers that had been worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” — and stolen from a museum almost 20 years in the past — fetched $28 million in an public sale Saturday.
Robert Wilonsky, a vp with the Dallas-based public sale home, informed CBS News in an electronic mail that, with the customer’s premium — a fee that the customer pays — the slippers offered for a complete of $32.5 million.
Heritage Auctions had estimated that the slippers would fetch $3 million or extra. Online bidding opened final month and by Friday had reached $1.55 million, or $1.91 million together with the customer’s premium, Wilonsky stated. Over 800 individuals had been monitoring the slippers, and the corporate’s web page for the auction had hit almost 43,000 web page views by Thursday, he stated.
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As Rhys Thomas, creator of the ebook, “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” places it, the sequined sneakers from the beloved 1939 musical have seen “extra twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Road.”
They had been on show on the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005 when Terry Jon Martin used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and show case.
Steve Karnowski / AP
Their whereabouts remained a thriller till the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77, who lives close to Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, wasn’t publicly uncovered because the thief till he was indicted in May 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2023. Martin admitted he used a small sledgehammer to interrupt into the museum. He then used the device to crack the case the slippers had been in and take them. He stated he did not hear any alarm. He took off in his automotive and saved them in a trailer adjoining to his dwelling.
He was in a wheelchair and on supplementary oxygen when he was sentenced final January to time served due to his poor well being.
His legal professional, Dane DeKrey, defined forward of sentencing that Martin, who had a protracted historical past of housebreaking and receiving stolen property, was making an attempt to tug off “one final rating” after an previous affiliate with connections to the mob informed him the sneakers needed to be adorned with actual jewels to justify their $1 million insured worth. But a fence — an individual who buys stolen items — later informed him the rubies had been simply glass, DeKrey stated. So Martin removed the slippers. The legal professional did not specify how.
The alleged fence, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77, of the Minneapolis suburb of Crystal, was indicted in March. He was additionally in a wheelchair and on oxygen when he made his first courtroom look. He’s scheduled to go on trial in January and hasn’t entered a plea, although his legal professional has stated he isn’t responsible.
The sneakers had been returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They had been certainly one of a number of pairs that Garland wore throughout the filming, however solely 4 pairs are identified to have survived. In the film, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy needed to click on her heels thrice and repeat, “There’s no place like dwelling.”
Among these bidding was the Judy Garland Museum. The metropolis of Grand Rapids raised cash for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland pageant to complement the $100,000 put aside this yr by Minnesota lawmakers to assist the museum buy the slippers.
“The Wizard of Oz” story has gained new consideration in latest weeks with the discharge of the film “Wicked,” an adaptation of the megahit Broadway musical, a prequel of kinds that reimagines the character of the Wicked Witch of the West.
The public sale additionally included different memorabilia from “The Wizard of Oz,” together with a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who performed the unique Wicked Witch of the West.
