A whopping $1 million reward is up for anyone who could give the exact location and the name of the perpetrator of Judy Garland's 'Wizard of Oz' ruby slippers that were stolen from a Minnesota museum in what would be 10 years ago this August, Time.com reports.
The pair of shoes was one of those worn by Judy Garland as she played the role of Dorothy Gale in the 1939 MGM movie. Its iconic stature made it one of today's most treasured and valuable film memorabilia. Several pairs of the shoes were made for the movie but only 5 are known to still exist including the one that was stolen in August 28, 2005 and the one on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
In a foxnews.com report, the executive director of Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids says that the donor of the bounty, who wishes to stay anonymous, is a huge fan of the late actress and a devotee of the 1939 movie.
In the same report, a rumor of the location of the stolen shoes came up in June which drove Itasca County Sheriff's Dive Team to the Tioga Mine Pit which is 238 feet deep. There were tons of trash in the mine but a test dive conducted the same month uncovered several items that could possibly be linked to the case.
According to Johny Miner, Treasurer of the Board for the Judy Garland Museum, the incident was the biggest thing to happen to their museum and that they could have prevented it from happening.
"The worst part about it was is we had a safe the bank had loaned us to put them in and they guy that owned them didn't want us to handle them," he said.
The shoes were ultimately snatched when unidentified person or people broke in the museum and smashed the Plexiglass encasing the items.
"We kicked ourselves in the butt for not putting them in the safe," said Jon Miner to The Washington Post. "Of course, the owner was dumbfounded. And so were we."
At the time to the theft, the ruby shoes were insured for $1 million and they could be worth between $2 million to $3 million now.
