$1m reward offered for Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz slippers

An anonymous donor has offered a reward of $1m (£640,000, €910,000) for information leading to the recovery of the famous ruby shoes worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic, The Wizard of Oz.

The red slippers – reportedly worth between $2m and $3m - were stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in August 2005.

The museum's director, John Kelsch, was quoted as saying by CBS News that an unnamed fan of the film from Arizona had offered the sizeable incentive for their return.

The reward requires the precise location of the shoes and the identity of the perpetrator of the heist.

Among the most treasured and valuable of film memorabilia, Dorothy's ruby slippers were created by covering red satin shoes with burgundy sequins sewn into fine chiffon. Only four pairs of the shoes are known to exist.

One pair has been on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC since 1979.

Last month, Minnesota police followed up on a tipoff that the stolen shoes had been discarded in the Tioga Mine Pit in Grand Rapids, but the search came up empty.