Dorothy's ruby slippers sell for $28m at auction

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A brace of ruby reddish slippers worn by histrion Judy Garland successful the classical movie The Wizard of Oz person been sold for $28m (£22m) astatine a US-based auction connected Saturday.

One of 4 surviving pairs utilized successful the film, the famed sequined pumps were erstwhile stolen from a Minnesota museum.

Online bidding started a period ago, with the slippers expected to fetch arsenic overmuch arsenic $3m (£2.35m) astatine auction, according to Heritage Auctions - an under-estimate by $25m (£20m).

The auctioneers called the slippers the "Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia" and said their selling terms made them the astir invaluable movie memorabilia ever sold astatine auction.

The winning bid prompted applause successful the auction country successful Dallas, with the merchantability coinciding with a renewed involvement successful the philharmonic pursuing the caller merchandise of the prequel movie Wicked.

Garland was lone 16 erstwhile she played Dorothy successful the classical 1939 philharmonic The Wizard of Oz. Media outlet Variety ranked it 2nd successful its inaugural database of "100 Greatest Movies of All Time".

The movie is simply a philharmonic adaptation of L Frank Baum's 1900 children's publication The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While successful the book, the magical slippers are silver, the producers for the movie changed them to reddish to instrumentality vantage of the caller Technicolor technology.

In the film, arsenic successful the book, a pivotal infinitesimal occurs erstwhile Dorothy indispensable click her heels 3 times arsenic she repeats "There's nary spot similar home" successful bid to permission the magical onshore of Oz and instrumentality to Kansas and her Auntie Em.

While respective pairs of shoes were worn by Garland during filming, lone 4 are known to person survived.

One of the pairs is connected grounds astatine the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. But this brace up for auction has its ain unsocial history.

Collector Michael Shaw had loaned the slippers retired to the Judy Garland Museum successful her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, erstwhile they were stolen successful 2005.

Professional thief Terry Jon Martin utilized a hammer to smash the solid lawsuit and snatch the slippers, believing that their insured worth of $1m indispensable beryllium due to the fact that they were covered successful existent gemstones.

But erstwhile helium took them to a "fence" - and intermediary who sells stolen goods to discreet buyers - helium discovered they were conscionable glass.

So helium gave the shoes to idiosyncratic else. It wasn't until 2018 that the FBI recovered the shoes successful a sting operation. What happened to them successful those 13 years is inactive not known.

In 2023, Martin - who was successful his 70s and utilized a wheelchair - pleaded blameworthy to stealing them, and was sentenced to clip served.

"There's immoderate closure, and we bash cognize decidedly that Terry Jon Martin did interruption into our museum, but I'd similar to cognize what happened to them aft helium fto them go," John Kelsch, curator of the Judy Garland Museum, told CBS News Minnesota successful 2023.

"Just to bash it due to the fact that helium thought they were existent rubies and to crook them implicit to a jewelry fence. I mean, the worth is not rubies. The worth is an American treasure, a nationalist treasure. To bargain them without knowing that seems ludicrous."

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