US prosecutors have charged a man with stealing the iconic red footwear worn by Judy Garland’s Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz (1939).
After being stolen from a museum in August 2005, the valuable shoes were discovered during an FBI operation in 2018, but no arrests were made at the time.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Terry Martin, 76, of Minnesota with the larceny of a significant work of art.
The recovered set of slippers is one of four existing pairs.
A rear door window-breaking criminal stole the shoes from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Neither fingerprints nor an alarm were left behind, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
In a sting operation, the FBI’s art crime unit discovered them. The case is being managed by North Dakota federal prosecutors and the FBI’s Minneapolis Division.
The crimson shoes play a pivotal role in The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is transported back to Kansas when she links her heels together and declares, “There is no place like home.”
Tuesday’s charging documents contained no information regarding the circumstances surrounding Mr. Martin’s arrest. He told a reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Wednesday, “I must go to trial. I do not wish to speak with you.”
Mr. Martin lives 19 kilometres (12 miles) from the museum in Judy Garland’s childhood home, according to the newspaper.
The executive director of the museum, Janie Heitz, believes the suspect was never an employee of the institution.
The treasured Hollywood memorabilia has been appraised at $3.5 million (£2.8 million), according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of North Dakota, and was insured for $1 million when it was stolen nearly 18 years ago.
Another pair of the red sequined slippers are on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. And the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acquired another pair in 2012.
The FBI is currently in possession of the stolen footwear.
“Nothing can be done with them until the court cases are resolved,” the museum wrote on Facebook.
