Nearly two decades after a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” were stolen from a museum in Minnesota, the iconic shoes will soon be sold. auctioned to the highest bidder on Saturday.
Heritage Auctions estimates the slippers will fetch $3 million or more. Online bidding began last month and had reached $1.55 million as of Friday, or $1.91 million including the buyer’s premium, a commission the buyer pays, said Robert Wilonsky, vice president at the Dallas-based auction house. More than 800 people followed the slippers and the company’s web page for the auction had been viewed nearly 43,000 times as of Thursday, he said.
Reed Saxon / AP
As Rhys Thomas, author of the book “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” puts it, the sequined shoes from the beloved 1939 musical have “taken 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 Jon Martin used a hammer to break the glass of the museum door and the display case.
Steve Karnowski/AP
Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77, who lives near Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, was not publicly exposed as the thief until he was indicted in May 2023. pleaded guilty in October 2023. Martin admitted to using a small sledgehammer to break into the museum. He then used the tools to crack the chest the slippers were in and take them away. He said he didn’t hear any alarms. He left in his car and kept them in a trailer next to his house.
He was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen when he was sentenced to prison last January due to his ill health.
His attorney, Dane DeKrey, explained before sentencing that Martin, who had a long history of burglaries and receiving stolen property, tried to get “one last score” after a longtime associate with connections to the mafia told him that the shoes had to be sold. be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value. But a fence — someone who buys stolen goods — later told him the rubies were just glass, DeKrey said. So Martin got rid of the slippers. The lawyer did not clarify how.
The alleged fence, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77, of the Minneapolis suburb of Crystal, was charged in March. He was also in a wheelchair and on oxygen when he first appeared in court. He is due to appear in court in January and has not yet entered a plea, although his lawyer has said he is not guilty.
The shoes were returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They were one of many pairs worn by Garland during the filming, but only four pairs are known to have survived. In the film, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”
Among the bidders is the Judy Garland Museum. The city of Grand Rapids raised money for the slippers during the annual Judy Garland Festival, supplementing the $100,000 that Minnesota lawmakers set aside this year to help the museum purchase the slippers.
The story of “The Wizard of Oz” has gained new attention in recent weeks with the release of the film “Bad”, an adaptation of the mega-hit Broadway musical, a prequel of sorts that reprises the character of the Wicked Witch of the West.
The auction also includes other memorabilia from “The Wizard of Oz,” including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who played the original Wicked Witch of the West.
