- The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 24, 2024

The Catholic University of America will move forward with the auction of a dress worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit aiming to stop the sale.

The dress had been given to Father Gilbert Hartke, then head of the D.C. school’s drama department, by actress and artist in residence Mercedes McCambridge in 1973. The dress then went missing in the 1980s before being found in 2022, the Bonhams auction house said in a release.

When news of the finding and sale came to public attention, however, Hartke’s niece Barbara Ann Hartke filed a lawsuit, obtaining a temporary injunction against the auction in May 2022. Ms. Hartke claimed ownership on the grounds that she represented the late clergyman’s estate, and that the dress was not specifically willed to the school.

As a clergyman, Hartke had renounced worldly goods and declared anything that accrued to him should go to the Dominican Order. 

His 1986 will established that he did not have any assets to bequeath beyond the rights to his name. As such, Ms. Hartke did not have standing to sue for possession of the dress, and the case was dismissed at the defendant’s behest last Dec. 11, court documents showed.

Ms. Hartke then filed a second, amended complaint, which was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday. 

“My client and I are most disappointed with the dissolution of the injunction preventing the auction of the iconic dress, as we feel we clearly demonstrated the elements to keep it in place, pending resolution of who owns the dress,” Ms. Hartke’s attorney Anthony Scordo told WTOP-FM.

The blue and white gingham dress with white blouse, originally slated for sale in May 2022, is one of two complete Garland costumes from the movie, and can be seen on screen when Garland’s Dorothy faces off with the Wicked Witch of the West in her castle, Bonhams said in the item’s original lot listing.

The other complete dress was sold by Bonhams in 2015 for $1,565,000.

The university has not announced when the dress will be going back to the auction block, but it plans to use the proceeds from the sale to endow a faculty chair for the drama department.

“While it took a little while longer, it is very satisfying to know that we will be able to proceed with an auction to raise funds benefiting a school that Father Hartke loved so dearly,” Jacqueline J. Leary-Warsaw, dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art, said in a release from the university.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.

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