Posted on 12/08/2024 7:04:48 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A pair of iconic ruby slippers that were worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” and stolen from a museum nearly two decades ago sold for a winning bid of $28 million at auction Saturday.
Heritage Auctions had estimated that they would fetch $3 million or more, but the fast-paced bidding far outpaced that amount within seconds and tripled it within minutes. A few bidders making offers by phone volleyed back and forth for 15 minutes as the price climbed to the final, eye-popping sum.
Including the Dallas-based auction house's fee, the unknown buyer will ultimately pay $32.5 million.
Online bidding, which opened last month, had stood at $1.55 million before live bidding began late Saturday afternoon.
This slippers were on display at the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005 when Terry Jon Martin used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case.
Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77, who lives near Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, wasn't publicly exposed as the thief until he was indicted in May 2023. He pleaded guilty in October 2023. He was in a wheelchair and on supplementary oxygen when he was sentenced last January to time served because of his poor health.
His attorney, Dane DeKrey, explained ahead of sentencing that Martin, who had a long history of burglary and receiving stolen property, was attempting 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 $1 million insured value.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
Yup, maybe the same person? Lol!
These are people who have far too much money to spend on frivolous nonsense.
The real Legend is my dad grew up in Culver City down the street from MGM he and his buddy’s loved to tease the muchkins going in and out of the studio
Maybe Musk has a bit of show tunes lover in him
Women were treated terribly in those days - glitz and glamor on the red carpet, but behind the scenes, they’re being shouted down, treated like little girls and told to lose weight like Judy was. Hell, even Carrie Fisher in Return of the Jedi was saying that she was being told to lose weight for that bikini - I thought she looked amazing. She said she developed an eating disorder.
I watched a documentary about Hedy Lamarr a while back. She was actually brilliant, genius-level brilliant, but because she was as attractive as she was, she was told that nobody would see her for anything but a pretty face. The government screwed her over for a patent during WWII.
I was struggling to figure what a “banana duct” was and why someone would tape it to a wall.
The problem with patents is that you have to reveal how the device works. This can be a problem with military secret grade technology. What’s needed is a special type of patent where only the government knows how it works but the inventor still gets patent rights.
One well placed comma can make all the difference, so I am reminded.
Fifty bucks is the best I can do.........
Well yeah, she killed a witch to get them!.........
There was a thing on X of who really was the “bad witch”.
Glenda has Dorthy take the slippers to gain power. Uses that power to kill the bad witch and expose the Wizard and he flees. Never told Dorthy that she could have used the slippers to return to Kansas. All so Glenda could take over the Kingdom of Oz.
Each?
Oz never did do nothing for the Tin Man...
There is at least one pair in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. They’re near The Fonz’s leather jacket and Archie Bunker’s chair.
I read recently Judy Garland was cast for Valley of the Dolls but was so drunk all the time they fired her. She begged to come back but they refused. Very sad.
You can’t be more of a part of History than that! :)
“Oz never did do nothing for the Tin Man...”
FReepers are the most ‘with it’ people on the planet!
YOU are a Founding Father! Did you join as a teenager? ;)
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