Topline
A costume worn by Judy Garland in her breakout function as Dorothy within the 1939 movie The Wizard Of Oz—estimated to be price as a lot as $1.2 million—is not going to go up on the market as deliberate this week, after a federal district choose granted a preliminary injunction to maintain the costume off the public sale block till a lawsuit difficult its proprietor is settled in courtroom.
The public sale of a costume worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” has been referred to as off by a choose—for … [+]
Bonhams
Key Information
Decide Paul Gardephe ordered that the public sale, which was slated for Tuesday in Los Angeles, be postponed till the case is resolved, and set one other listening to for June.
Final month, The Catholic College of America in Washington, D.C., introduced it was auctioning the costume to lift cash for its drama division, whose earlier chair—Rev. Gilbert Hartke—was gifted the costume by actress Mercedes McCambridge in 1973.
Nevertheless, Hartke’s niece Barbara Hartke, who’s the inheritor to his property, filed a lawsuit towards the college and public sale home Bonhams earlier this month, claiming that she is the rightful proprietor of the costume as a result of McCambridge “particularly and publicly” gave the costume to Hartke, not the college.
Catholic College maintains it’s the rightful proprietor of the costume and has each proper to promote it, telling Forbes that as a priest and member of the Dominican Order, Hartke had taken a vow of poverty to not obtain or settle for any items as his personal private property.
The college believes its plan to make use of the proceeds to endow a school place within the Rome College of Music, Drama and Artwork “is according to Mercedes McCambridge’s authentic intent and Father Gilbert Hartke’s want to help and develop the College’s drama program,” a consultant informed Forbes in a press release.
Key Background
The costume is one in all solely two current attire worn by Garland throughout filming that’s nonetheless paired with an identical white shirt, in accordance with Bonhams public sale home, which says photo-matching exhibits Garland wore the costume throughout The Wizard of Oz scene by which Dorothy is threatened by the Depraved Witch of the West in her fort. McCambridge gave Hartke the costume as a thank-you current for serving to her via her substance abuse points, and individuals who knew the actress say she could have initially gotten the costume from the MGM costume archives throughout a list clearance, in accordance with Bonhams. The costume was rediscovered throughout the pandemic by a retired drama professor going via containers in his outdated workplace after going lacking in some unspecified time in the future throughout the Nineteen Eighties after Hartke’s dying.Bonhams estimates the costume would fetch between $600,000 and $1.2 million at public sale.
Massive Quantity
$1.56 million. That’s how a lot another Dorothy dress worn by Garland whereas filming the film fetched at public sale in 2015. It additionally had an public sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million. Barbara Hartke’s authorized group famous within the lawsuit that they imagine the Dorothy costume slated for public sale by Catholic College would additionally promote for a better worth than the public sale home estimate signifies.
Additional Studying
Priest’s Niece Sues To Cease Public sale Of Dorothy Costume Worn By Judy Garland In ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ (Forbes)
Lengthy-Misplaced Dorothy Costume Worn By Judy Garland In ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Might Fetch $1.2 Million (Forbes)
