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The iconic ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” and stolen from a museum nearly 20 years ago sold for $28 million at auction Saturday, making them one of the most valuable pieces of memorabilia in movie history. It became.
Heritage Auctions had estimated the sale price would be more than $3 million, but quick bidding pushed the bid well above that amount and tripled within minutes. Several bidders, who placed their bids by phone, battled it out for 15 minutes before the price rose to a final eye-watering amount.
The unknown buyer will ultimately pay $32.5 million, including the Dallas-based auction house’s fees.
Online bidding, which began last month, was at $1.55 million by the time live bidding began late Saturday afternoon.
The glittering red heels were on display at the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when Terry John Martin used a hammer to break the glass of the museum’s doors and display cases in 2005. .
Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77 and living near Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, was not publicly exposed as a thief until he was indicted in May 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2023. He was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen when he was sentenced to a limited term sentence in January last year due to poor health.
Prior to sentencing, barrister Dane Decray said Martin had a long history of burglary and receiving stolen property and had been told by an old mob-linked ally that he had to hang up his shoes, giving him the “final score”. I explained that I was trying. To be adorned with real jewelry to justify the $1 million insurance value. But Fence, who buys the stolen goods, later told him the ruby was just glass, Decray said. So Martin got rid of the slippers. The lawyer did not say how.
Jerry Hull Saliterman, 77, of the Minneapolis suburb of Crystal, was charged in March with installing the fence. When he appeared in court for the first time, he was in a wheelchair and on oxygen. He is scheduled to go on trial in January and has not yet entered a plea, but his lawyer says he is innocent.
The shoes were returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. These were one of several pairs Garland wore during filming, but only four are known to have survived. In the movie, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home” to get back to Kansas from Oz.
As Rhys Thomas, author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, puts it, the sequined slippers from the popular 1939 musical have gone through “more twists and turns than the yellow brick road.”
More than 800 people were chasing the slippers, and the company’s auction webpage had nearly 43,000 page views by Thursday, said Robert Wilonsky, vice president of the auction company.
The Judy Garland Museum was among those bidding to take home the slippers, but the museum posted on Facebook shortly after losing the bid. The museum was appealing for donations to supplement funds raised by the city of Grand Rapids at the annual Judy Garland Festival and the $100,000 set aside this year by the Minnesota Legislature to help the museum purchase the slippers.
After the slippers were sold, the auctioneer told bidders and spectators who were at the venue and watching online that the previous record for entertainment memorabilia was that Marilyn Monroe wore them on a windy subway grate. The famous white dress was said to cost $5.52 million.
The auction also included other Wizard of Oz memorabilia, including the hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who played the original Wicked Witch of the West. The item sold for $2.4 million, bringing the buyer’s final total cost to $2.93 million.
The story of “The Wizard of Oz” has received new attention in recent weeks with the release of the film “Wicked,” an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical and a prequel of sorts that reimagines the character of the Wicked Witch of the West. It becomes.
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Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa.
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