A pair of ruby slippers, worn by actress Judy Garland and housed in a museum in Minnesota, that was stolen in 2005 has been recovered.
Officials made the announcement late Sept. 4.
“We are here today to share with you the recovery of one of the most significant and cherished pieces of movie memorabilia in American history,” Jill Sanborn, special-agent-in-charge of the Minneapolis Division of the FBI, said at a press conference.
The slippers were worn by Garland in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz” and housed in the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, until they were stolen in 2005.
Four Pairs Survive
Multiple pairs of slippers were worn by the actress in the movie but only four pairs are known to have survived to the present day.
One was purchased by some actors in Hollywood and donated to the Academy of Arts and Sciences, while another pair is in an exhibit in the Smithsonian in Washington. A third pair is in the possession of a private party and not on display.
The fourth pair was owned by Michael Shaw, a California man who is a Wizard of Oz collector, and on loan to the museum, which was described as “home of the world’s largest Judy Garland and Wizard of Oz collection” at the time of the theft.
The slippers had been insured for $1 million at the time of the disappearance, reported the Grand Rapids Herald-Review.
Rhys Thomas, author of “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” called the slippers “the Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia.”
“They are maybe the most iconic cinematic prop or costume in movie history, and in fact, in cultural history. They are a cultural icon,” he told The Associated Press, adding that he believed the pair could be worth between $2 million and $7 million.
Sanborn said that the FBI and its local partners in Grand Rapids received a new tip in the summer of 2017 and diligently pursued the information by interviewing a number of people and searching multiple locations.
Now, the slippers have been recovered.
More Information Needed
But Sanborn stressed that the people responsible for the theft have not been brought to justice and encouraged anyone with information to share it with the FBI.
“This is a significant milestone and we wanted to share that today. While we gather lots of information on this case, we believe there is lots more to give. There is also intelligence that can be from the actual theft, to the motive to helping us piece this together,” she said.
“Our hope today is that folks that are watching this if you know something about the theft, something about where these slippers have been for the last 13 years that you come forward and you share that with us.”
