a pair of iconic ruby slippers The outfit worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” and stolen from a museum nearly 20 years ago sold for $28 million at auction on Saturday.
Robert Wilonski, vice president of the Dallas-based auction house, told CBS News in an email that the slippers sold for a total of $32.5 million, including the buyer’s premium. .
Heritage Auctions estimated the slippers would fetch more than $3 million. Online bidding began last month, and by Friday the winning bid had reached $1.55 million, or $1.91 million including the buyer’s premium, Wilonski said. He said more than 800 people were chasing the slippers, and the company’s auction webpage had reached about 43,000 page views by Thursday.
Reed Saxon/AP
As Rhys Thomas, author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, says, the sequined slippers from the popular 1939 musical had “more twists and turns than the yellow brick road.” .
They were on display at the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005. terry john martin He used a hammer to break the museum’s doors and the glass in the display cases.
Steve Karnowski/Associated Press
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. pled guilty in October 2023. Martin admitted to using a small hammer. Infiltrate the museum. He then used the tool to break open the case containing the slippers and took out the slippers. He said he did not hear any alarms. He left in his car and stored them in a trailer adjacent to his home.
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 film, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home” to get back to Kansas from Oz.
Among the bidders was the Judy Garland Museum. The city of Grand Rapids collected slipper donations at its annual Judy Garland Festival to supplement the $100,000 set aside this year by the Minnesota Legislature to help purchase slippers for the museum.
The story of “The Wizard of Oz” has received renewed attention in recent weeks with the release of the movie “”.evil” is an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical and a prequel of sorts that reimagines the Wicked Witch of the West characters.
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.
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