DALLAS — A pair of ruby slippers worn by Minnesota native Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” are on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, somehow convinced they were adorned with real jewels.
Heritage Auctions in Dallas announced in a news release that online bidding has started and will continue through Dec. 7. As of 1 p.m. Tuesday, the leading bid was $550,000.
The auction company received the sequin-and-bead-bedazzled slippers from Michael Shaw, the memorabilia collector who originally owned the footwear at the heart of the beloved 1939 musical.
Shaw had loaned the shoes in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but that summer, someone smashed through a display case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.
Now the Garland Museum is among those vying for the slippers, which were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only four pairs remain.
Grand Rapids raised money for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland festival, and will combine those funds with $100,000 set aside this year by the Minnesota Legislature to purchase the slippers.
The man who stole the slippers back in 2005, Terry Jon Martin, was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health. Martin, now 76, admitted to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after an old associate with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.
The current auction of movie memorabilia includes other items from “The Wizard of Oz,” including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West and the screen door from Dorothy’s Kansas home.