Snippets of clues & details in the Wizard of Oz Stolen Ruby Slippers
The slippers had been on loan to the museum from Hollywood memorabilia collector Michael Shaw. Three other pairs that Garland wore in the movie are held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Smithsonian and a private collector.
Garland, who was born Frances Gumm, lived in Grand Rapids, about 200 miles north of Minneapolis, until she was 4?½, when her family moved to Los Angeles.
http://wina.com/news/030030-garlands-stolen-ruby-slippers-from-wizard-of-oz-are-found/
Snippet:
The FBI said a man approached the insurer in summer 2017 and said he could help get them back. Grand Rapids police asked for the FBI’s help and after a nearly year-long investigation, the slippers were recovered in July during a sting operation in Minneapolis.
The FBI said no one has yet been arrested or charged in the case, but they have “multiple suspects” and continue to investigate. As they unveiled the recovered slippers at a news conference Tuesday, they asked anyone with information about the theft to contact them. “We’re not done. We have a lot of work to do,” Christopher Myers, the U.S. attorney for North Dakota, said.
https://wgntv.com/2018/09/04/dorothys-ruby-slippers-have-been-found-13-years-after-they-were-stolen/
After nearly a yearlong investigation involving the bureau's Art Crime Team, the FBI Laboratory, and field offices in Chicago, Atlanta and Miami, the slippers were recovered during an undercover operation in Minneapolis, the statement said.
Jill Sanborn, special agent in charge of the Minneapolis division of the FBI, called the shoes' recovery a "significant milestone." But law enforcement is still seeking information about the 2005 theft, she said. "This is still a very, very active and ongoing investigation," said Sanborn.
In the documentary, Shaw says he bought the shoes from a Hollywood costume designer who found them in MGM Studios' backlot property in Culver City, California. As the story goes, Kent Warner found several pairs on a dusty shelf and took one to the famed MGM Studios auction in 1970. He kept the rest for himself – the exact number is not clear – selling them off to collectors, including Shaw. Meanwhile, a Tennessee schoolteacher won another pair in a contest in 1940. She sold them at auction in 1988 to a private collector for $165,000. Another pair has been on display in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington since 1979. In 2016, the organization launched an online campaign to raise money to restore their luster. In 2012, a group of actors led by Leonardo DiCaprio purchased a pair to be displayed at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, set to open this year in Los Angeles.
https://www.ksat.com/entertainment/fbi-dorothys-ruby-slippers-found-13-years-after-theft
Museum staff arrived in the morning to find the shoes missing from a smashed glass case. The alarm had been tripped but a signal was not sent to police dispatch, museum co-founder John Kelsch said in the documentary. Miner and Kelsch vehemently denied rumors of an inside job. “We’re the ones that want to find them because they were entrusted to us,” Miner said. “Our people, they love the museum. They wouldn’t have done that. These are honest people,” Kelsch said.
https://fox4kc.com/2018/09/04/dorothys-ruby-slippers-have-been-found-13-years-after-they-were-stolen/