Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the birthplace of actress Judy Garland, is trying to raise money to buy back a pair of ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” These famous shoes were stolen from a local museum and later given to an auction company.
The town is collecting donations during its yearly Judy Garland festival, which starts Thursday. They hope to bring the slippers back after an auction company shows them around the world and then sells them in December.
Joe Maddalena from Heritage Auctions said, “They could sell for $1 million, they could sell for $10 million. They’re priceless. Once they’re gone, all the money in the world can’t buy them back.”
The town’s fundraising will add to the $100,000 that Minnesota lawmakers set aside to buy the slippers.
The slippers were originally owned by Michael Shaw, who lent them to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids in 2005. That summer, someone broke into the museum and stole them. The FBI found them in 2018.
Terry Jon Martin, 76, admitted to stealing the slippers. He was sentenced to time already served because of his poor health. Another man, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 76, was also charged for his part in the theft.
The ruby slippers were a key part of “The Wizard of Oz,” a famous 1939 movie. Judy Garland’s character, Dorothy, wore them as she danced down the Yellow Brick Road. Garland wore several pairs during filming, but only four pairs still exist today.
Maddalena hopes that giving advance notice about the auction will help places like the Judy Garland Museum have a chance to buy the slippers.
The museum, which includes Garland’s childhood home, says it has the world’s largest collection of Garland and “Wizard of Oz” items.
“We wanted to enable places that might not normally be able to raise the funds so quickly to have plenty of time to think about it and work out ways to do that,” Maddalena said. “If they ended up back there, that’d be a fantastic story.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.