Ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ to be auctioned nearly 20 years after theft
MINNEAPOLIS– Nearly two decades after a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” were stolen from a Minnesota museum, the iconic shoes are being ready to be auctioned Saturday to the highest bidder.
Heritage Auctions estimates the slippers will fetch $3 million or more. Online bidding began last month and had reached $1.55 million as of Friday, or $1.91 million including the buyer’s premium, a commission the buyer pays, said Robert Wilonsky, vice president at the Dallas-based auction house. More than 800 people followed the slippers and those of the company web page for the auction had reached nearly 43,000 page views as of Thursday, he said.
As Rhys Thomas, author of the book “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” puts it, the sequined shoes from the beloved 1939 musical have “taken more twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Road.”
They were on display at 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 display case.
Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77, who lives near Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, was not publicly exposed as the thief until he was indicted in May 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2023. He was in a wheelchair and receiving supplemental oxygen when he was convicted last January due to his poor health.
His attorney, Dane DeKrey, explained before sentencing that Martin, who had a long history of burglaries and receiving stolen property, tried to get “one last score” after a longtime associate with connections to the mafia told him that the shoes had to be sold. be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value. But a fence — someone who buys stolen goods — later told him the rubies were just glass, DeKrey said. So Martin got rid of the slippers. The lawyer did not clarify how.
The alleged fence, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77, of the Minneapolis suburb of Crystal, was indicted in March. He was also in a wheelchair and on oxygen when he first appeared in court. He is due to appear in court in January and has not yet entered a plea, although his lawyer has said he is not guilty.
The shoes were returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They were one of many pairs worn by Garland during the filming, but only four pairs are known to have survived. In the movie, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”
Among the bidders is the Judy Garland Museum. The City of Grand Rapids money raised for the slippers at his annual Judy Garland Festival in addition to the $100,000 set aside this year by Minnesota lawmakers to help the museum purchase the slippers.
The story of “The Wizard of Oz” has gained new attention in recent weeks with the release of the film ‘Wicked’ an adaptation of the mega-hit Broadway musical, a kind of prequel to it reinterprets the character of the Wicked Witch of the West.
The auction also includes other memorabilia from “The Wizard of Oz,” including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who played the original Wicked Witch of the West.