Wizard Of Oz ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland will be auctioned for all around $3.5M… after getting stolen in 2005 then recovered 13 decades later

Judy Garland’s ruby crimson slippers from The Wizard Of Oz will be going up for auction soon after it was earlier stolen and subsequently recovered.

The pair, which was worn by the late actress, was reunited with the owner, collector Michael Shaw, and will be proven on an global tour in advance of currently being auctioned off afterwards this calendar year.

This comes shortly right after a 2nd person was billed in link to the theft of the iconic slippers worn by Garland, who died at the age of 47 in 1969, for the duration of filming of the 1939 cult classic movie.

The well known ruby slippers, which is a single of four surviving pairs from the 1939 movie, had been stolen in August 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota when a thief who broke into the singer’s childhood house. 

Nearly two many years later on, the FBI recovered the slippers in a sting procedure in Minneapolis in 2018, and in accordance to federal prosecutors, the market benefit is believed to be all over $3.5 million. 

Immediately after becoming reunited with the footwear, Shaw is now parting ways with them once again and collaborating with Heritage Auctions to get the pair on a multi-city planet tour in advance of placing them up for auction in December.

‘You simply cannot overstate the worth of Dorothy’s ruby slippers,’ Heritage Auctions govt vice president Joe Maddalena said in a push release on Monday. ‘They are the most significant prop in Hollywood historical past.

‘This pair is treasured as it hails from the famous selection of Michael Shaw, and we are honored he has partnered with Heritage.

‘As TCM [Turner Classic Movies] host Ben Mankiewicz when stated, these slippers “symbolize hope”, and we’re thrilled they will journey down the yellow brick road to the auction block to a new home.’ 

In the iconic motion picture, Garland performed the beloved character Dorothy, who returned from Oz to Kansas by clicking the heels of her ruby red slippers and repeating the phrase: ‘There’s no put like house.’

30 several years just after filming the critically-acclaimed motion picture, she tragically passed absent from an accidental barbiturate overdose at the age of 47 in 1969. 

During The Wizard of Oz, Garland wore various pairs but only four genuine pairs are recognised to have remained. 

The three remaining pairs reside at the Academy of Motion Photo Arts and Sciences, the Smithsonian Museum of American Heritage and with a private collector. 

In the theft of the before long-to-be-auctioned footwear — which are ‘of a better high quality than the pair now residing in the Smithsonian’, according to a Forbes report from 2008 — 1 man was sentenced in January and an additional lately sentenced for his involvement in the crime.

A vocation criminal named Terry Jon Martin, 76, was billed with theft of a key artwork just after his confession in October 2023 and sentenced to no prison time because of to his declining overall health.

The next male, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, was charged with theft of a major artwork and witness tampering.

He manufactured his to start with courtroom overall look on Friday, and like Martin, he appeared to be suffering from declining health and fitness as appeared in entrance of the decide with an oxygen tank and in a wheelchair, according to the Involved Press.

Two several years back, the iconic blue and white gingham dress Garland wore in the motion picture was also rediscovered at Washington, D.C.’s Catholic College soon after it was missing for 50 years.