MINNEAPOLIS – Nearly two decades after a pair of ruby ​​slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” were stolen from a Minnesota museum, the iconic shoes are ready to be sold at auction to the highest bidder on Saturday.

Heritage Auctions estimates the slippers will fetch $3 million or more. Online bidding began last month and reached $1.55 million as of Friday, or $1.91 million including buyer’s premium, a commission the buyer pays, said Robert Wilonsky, vice president from the Dallas-based auction house. More than 800 people followed the slippers, and the company web page for auction had reached nearly 43,000 page views as of Thursday, he said.

As Rhys Thomas, author of the book “The Ruby Slippers of Oz,” says, the sequinned shoes from the beloved 1939 musical have had “more twists and turns than the yellow brick road.”

They 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 break the glass in the museum’s door and display case.

Their fate remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018. Martin, now 77, who lives near Grand Rapids in northern Minnesota, has not been publicly revealed as the thief. until he is indicted in May 2023. It pleaded guilty in October 2023. He was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen when he was sentenced last January to a prison sentence due to his poor health.

His lawyer, Dane DeKrey, explained before the sentencing that Martin, who had a long history of burglaries and receiving stolen property, was trying to make “one last score” after a former associate with ties to the Crowd told him that the shoes had to be adorned with real jewelry to justify their insured value of $1 million. But a receiver — a person who buys stolen goods — later told him the rubies were just glass, DeKrey said. So Martin got rid of the slippers. The lawyer did not specify how.

The alleged rector, Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77, of Crystal, a suburb of Minneapolis, was indicted in March. He was also in a wheelchair and on oxygen during his first court appearance. His trial is scheduled for January and he has not pleaded guilty, although his lawyer has said he is not guilty.

The shoes were returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They were one of many pairs Garland wore during filming, but only four pairs are known to survive. In the movie, to get back from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.” »

Among the candidates will be the Judy Garland Museum. The city of Grand Rapids money collected for slippers at its annual Judy Garland Party to supplement the $100,000 set aside this year by Minnesota lawmakers to help the museum purchase the slippers.

The story of the “Wizard of Oz” has attracted new attention in recent weeks with the release of the film “Wicked” an adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, a sort of prequel that reinvent the character of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The auction also includes other “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia, including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who played the original role of the Wicked Witch of the West.