The bright red shoes were on display at the Museu Judy Garlandin his hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005, when Terry Jon Martin broke the glass of the museum’s door and display case with a hammer to steal them.
One of the iconic pairs of “Ruby Slippers” worn by Judy Garland in the film “The Wizard of Oz” sold for 28 million dollars (26.5 million euros) at an auction held on Saturday in Dallas, United States of America.
had a bidding base of just three million dollars (2.8 million euros), but the rapid pace of bidding far exceeded that amount in seconds and tripled it in minutes, AP reported.
Some phone bidders walked back and forth for 15 minutes as the price rose to the final price, which was “impressive,” a source told the AP, regarding the pair of shiny shoes stolen from a museum for almost two decades and then rescued.
The buyer, unknown, will pay a total of 32.5 million dollars (around 39.7 million euros), including the auction house’s fees.
Shoes were stolen in 2005
The bright red shoes were on display at the in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005, when Terry Jon Martin broke the glass of the museum’s door and display case with a hammer to steal them.
Their whereabouts remained a mystery until US authorities recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77 and living in Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, was not publicly exposed as the thief until he was charged in May 2023, and pleaded guilty in October of the same year.
His attorney, Dane DeKrey, explained that Martin, with a long history of thefts and receiving stolen goods, was trying to pull off “one last hit” after being told that the shoes were adorned with real jewelry to justify the insured value of US$ 1 million (around 900 thousand euros).
But a receiver — a person who buys stolen goods — later told him the rubies were just glass, DeKrey said.
The shoes were returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had lent them to the museum. They were one of several pairs that Garland wore during filming, with four pairs known to have survived.
In the film, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat: “There’s no place like home.”
Among those bidding on the shoes was the Judy Garland Museum, which made a Facebook post saying it did not place the winning bid.
