MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A pair of iconic ruby slippers that have been worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” and stolen from a museum almost 20 years in the past bought for a profitable bid of $28 million at public sale Saturday.
Heritage Auctions had estimated that they’d fetch $3 million or extra, however the fast-paced bidding far outpaced that quantity inside seconds and tripled it inside minutes. A couple of bidders making provides by cellphone volleyed forwards and backwards for quarter-hour as the value climbed to the ultimate, eye-popping sum.
Together with the Dallas-based public sale home’s price, the unknown purchaser will in the end pay $32.5 million.
On-line bidding, which opened final month, had stood at $1.55 million earlier than dwell bidding started late Saturday afternoon.
The sparkly pink heels have 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 Could 2023. He pleaded responsible in October 2023. 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 lawyer, Dane DeKrey, defined forward of sentencing that Martin, who had a protracted historical past of housebreaking and receiving stolen property, was trying to drag off “one final rating” after an previous 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 have been simply glass, DeKrey mentioned. So Martin removed the slippers. The lawyer didn’t specify how.
MGM Studios through Getty Photographs
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 court docket look. He’s scheduled to go on trial in January and hasn’t entered a plea, although his lawyer has mentioned he’s not responsible.
The footwear have been returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They have been one among a number of pairs that Garland wore throughout the filming, however solely 4 pairs are identified to have survived. Within the film, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy needed to click on her heels 3 times and repeat, “There’s no place like house.”
As Rhys Thomas, creator of “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” put it, the sequined footwear from the beloved 1939 musical have seen “extra twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Street.”
Over 800 individuals had been monitoring the slippers, and the corporate’s webpage for the public sale had hit almost 43,000 web page views by Thursday, mentioned Robert Wilonsky, a vice chairman with the public sale home.
Amongst these bidding to carry the slippers house was the Judy Garland Museum, which posted on Fb shortly after that it didn’t place the profitable bid. The museum had campaigned for donations to complement cash raised by town of Grand Rapids at its annual Judy Garland competition and the $100,000 put aside this yr by Minnesota lawmakers to assist the museum buy the slippers.
After the slippers bought, the auctioneer informed bidders and spectators within the room and watching on-line that the earlier document for a chunk of leisure memorabilia was $5.52 million, for the white gown Marilyn Monroe famously wore atop a windy subway grate.
The public sale additionally included different memorabilia from “The Wizard of Oz,” reminiscent of a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who performed the unique Depraved Witch of the West. That merchandise went for $2.4 million, or a complete remaining value to the customer of $2.93 million.
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“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.
Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa.