‘Oz’ Items Fail to Sell at Auction

Five figurines believed to be the original prototypes for characters in the 1939 MGM film “The Wizard of Oz” failed to draw a minimum bid Thursday at an auction at Christie’s in New York, according to the statues’ owner, Lidia Penge.

Penge, 30, of Dana Point had hoped to net at least $10,000 for the Dorothy, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow and Professor Marvel figurines that she discovered six years ago in a warehouse inherited from her mother, MGM child actress Jackie Horner. But, Penge said Friday, no one would bid more than $5,000 and no sale was transacted.

According to “Oz” specialist Rhys Thomas, who was called in by Christie’s to authenticate the figurines, the one-of-a-kind, hand-painted plaster models were made by MGM artists sometime between May and October of 1938 and were given to Jackie Horner by producer Louis B. Mayer’s secretary.

Penge, who works as an accountant in Laguna Niguel, decided to place the statues on the auction block last September after hearing about a pair of “Oz” ruby slippers that netted $165,000 at auction in June, 1988. She hoped that interest in the statues would be especially high this year, given the publicity surrounding the film’s 50th anniversary.