Ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz up for auction 20 years after theft

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz are on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole them, thinking they were adorned with real jewels.

Online bidding has started and will continue until 7 December, Heritage Auctions in Dallas announced in a news release on Monday. Bidding currently stands at just over $812,000 (£631,000).

The auction company said it received the sequin-and-bead-covered slippers from Michael Shaw, a memorabilia collector who previously owned the footwear from the 1939 musical. Shaw had loaned the shoes in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. However, in the summer of the same year, someone smashed through a display case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.

Now the museum is among those vying for the slippers, which were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only four remain.

Grand Rapids raised money for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland festival. The funds will supplement the $100,000 set aside this year by Minnesota lawmakers to buy the slippers.

The man who stole the slippers, Terry Jon Martin, was 76 when he was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health. He 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 $1m insured value.

The auction of movie memorabilia includes other items from The Wizard of Oz, such as a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West and the screen door from Dorothy’s Kansas home.