Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz” go for $28 million at public sale

A pair of iconic ruby slippers that had been worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” — and stolen from a museum practically 20 years in the past — fetched $28 million in an public sale Saturday.

Robert Wilonsky, a vice chairman with the Dallas-based public sale home, informed CBS Information in an electronic mail that, with the client’s premium — a fee that the client pays — the slippers bought for a complete of $32.5 million. 

Heritage Auctions had estimated that the slippers would fetch $3 million or extra. On-line bidding opened final month and by Friday had reached $1.55 million, or $1.91 million together with the client’s premium, Wilonsky stated. Over 800 individuals had been monitoring the slippers, and the corporate’s internet web page for the public sale had hit practically 43,000 web page views by Thursday, he stated.

As Rhys Thomas, creator of the guide, “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” places it, the sequined footwear from the beloved 1939 musical have seen “extra twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Highway.”

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.

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 Might 2023. He pleaded responsible in October 2023. Martin admitted he used a small sledgehammer to interrupt into the museum. He then used the software 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 automobile and stored them in a trailer adjoining to his house.

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 an extended historical past of housebreaking and receiving stolen property, was making an attempt to tug off “one final rating” after an outdated affiliate with connections to the mob informed him the footwear needed to be adorned with actual jewels to justify their $1 million insured worth. However 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 is scheduled to go on trial in January and hasn’t entered a plea, although his legal professional has stated he is not responsible.

The footwear 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 in the course of the filming, however solely 4 pairs are identified to have survived. Within the film, to return from Ozto Kansas, Dorothy needed to click on her heels 3 times and repeat, “There is not any place like house.”

Amongst these bidding was the Judy Garland Museum. The town of Grand Rapids raised cash for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland pageant to complement the $100,000 put aside this 12 months 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 “Depraved,” an adaptation of the megahit Broadway musical, a prequel of types that reimagines the character of the Depraved 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 Depraved Witch of the West.