Practically twenty years after a pair of ruby slippers that have been worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” have been stolen from a Minnesota museum, the enduring sneakers are set to be auctioned off to the very best bidder Saturday.
Heritage Auctions estimates the slippers will 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, a fee that the client pays, stated Robert Wilonsky, a vice chairman with the Dallas-based public sale home. Over 800 folks have 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.
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As Rhys Thomas, creator of the ebook, “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” places it, the sequined sneakers from the beloved 1939 musical have seen “extra twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Street.”
They 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.
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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. Martin admitted he used a small sledgehammer to interrupt into the museum. He then used the instrument to crack the case the slippers have 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 lawyer, Dane DeKrey, defined forward of sentencing that Martin, who had a protracted historical past of housebreaking and receiving stolen property, was making an attempt to drag off “one final rating” after an outdated affiliate with connections to the mob instructed him the sneakers needed to be adorned with actual jewels to justify their $1 million insured worth. However a fence — an individual who buys stolen items — later instructed him the rubies have been simply glass, DeKrey stated. So Martin removed the slippers. The lawyer 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 lawyer has stated he is not responsible.
The sneakers have been returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They have been certainly one of a number of pairs that Garland wore through the filming, however solely 4 pairs are recognized to have survived. Within the film, to return from Ouncesto Kansas, Dorothy needed to click on her heels 3 times and repeat, “There is no place like house.”
Amongst these bidding would be the Judy Garland Museum. Town of Grand Rapids raised cash for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland competition to complement the $100,000 put aside this yr 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 kinds that reimagines the character of the Depraved Witch of the West.
The public sale additionally consists of different memorabilia from “The Wizard of Oz,” together with a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who performed the unique Depraved Witch of the West.