MINNEAPOLIS — A pair of iconic ruby slippers that had been worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” and stolen from a museum almost 20 years in the past offered for a profitable bid of $28 million at public sale Saturday.
Heritage Auctions had estimated that they might 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 presents by cellphone volleyed backwards and forwards for quarter-hour as the worth climbed to the ultimate, eye-popping sum.
Together with the Dallas-based public sale home’s price, the unknown purchaser will finally pay $32.5 million.
On-line bidding, which opened final month, had stood at $1.55 million earlier than reside bidding started late Saturday afternoon.
The sparkly purple heels 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. 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 an extended historical past of housebreaking and receiving stolen property, was trying to tug 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 had been simply glass, DeKrey stated. So Martin removed the slippers. The lawyer didn’t 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 court docket look. He’s scheduled to go on trial in January and hasn’t entered a plea, although his lawyer has stated he’s not responsible.
The footwear had been returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had lent them to the museum. They had been one in all a number of pairs that Garland wore through 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 dwelling.”
As Rhys Thomas, writer 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 Highway.”
Over 800 folks had been monitoring the slippers, and the corporate’s webpage for the public sale had hit almost 43,000 web page views by Thursday, stated Robert Wilonsky, a vice chairman with the public sale home.
Amongst these bidding to convey the slippers dwelling was the Judy Garland Museum, which posted on Fb shortly afterward that it didn’t place the profitable bid. The museum had campaigned for donations to complement cash raised by the town of Grand Rapids at its annual Judy Garland competition and the $100,000 put aside this 12 months by Minnesota lawmakers to assist the museum buy the slippers.
After the slippers offered, 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,” equivalent to 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 last price to the customer of $2.93 million.
“The Wizard of Oz” story has gained new consideration in latest weeks with the launch 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.
