A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” are on the public sale block almost twenty years after a thief stole the long-lasting sneakers, satisfied they had been adorned with actual jewels.
Online bidding has began and can proceed by means of Dec. 7, Heritage Auctions in Dallas introduced in a news launch Monday.
The public sale firm obtained the sequin-and-bead-bedazzled slippers from Michael Shaw, the memorabilia collector who initially owned the footwear on the coronary heart of the beloved 1939 musical. Shaw had loaned the sneakers in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
That summer season, somebody smashed by means of a show case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a thriller till the FBI recovered them in 2018.
Now the museum is amongst these vying for the slippers, which had been one in all a number of pairs Garland wore in the course of the filming. Only 4 stay.
Grand Rapids raised cash for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland pageant. The funds will complement the $100,000 put aside this 12 months by Minnesota lawmakers to buy the slippers.
The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, was 76 when he was sentenced in January to time served due to his poor well being. He admitting to utilizing a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and show case in what his lawyer mentioned was an try to drag off “one last score” after an outdated affiliate with connections to the mob advised him the sneakers needed to be adorned with actual jewels to justify their $1 million insured worth.
The public sale of film memorabilia contains different objects from “The Wizard of Oz,” equivalent to a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West and the display door from Dorothy’s Kansas house.
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