Photo: Silver Screen Collection/Getty
Heritage Auctionsdescribes the prop as “the most recognizable signature prop from the film,” noting that it was used in the scene in which the witch tells Dorothy: “You see that? That’s how much longer you’ve got to be alive! And it isn’t long, my pretty! it isn’t long! I can’t wait forever to get those shoes!”
Robert F Bukaty/AP/Shutterstock
The hand-blown glass is filled with red glitter, which Heritage notes was “added later for display, as the glitter does not flow through the narrow neck of the glass.”
The artifact has been featured in three museum exhibitions and has been sold at two prior auctions.
Theblue-and-white checked frock with attached white blousewas considered lost for nearly four decades before it wasrediscoveredlast year in Catholic University’s drama department collection.
Department head Father Gilbert Hartke received the dress as a gift back in the 1970s. But after just a year at the Washington, D.C. campus, the costume was reported to have gone missing.
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Fr. Gilbert died in 1986 and nearly four decades later, the dress was found again in a discarded shoebox.
The dress, which was valued between $800,000 and $1.2 million, was going to be among the items included in Bonham’s Classic Hollywood: Film and Television sale in May, until Fr. Gilbert’s niece and his closest living relative claimed in court that she was the rightful owner of the costume.
Amid the debate, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe on Monday granted a motion for a preliminary injunction. The ruling means the auction of the dress will be postponed until the case is resolved.
source: people.com
