Liza Minnelli selling off her wedding dress, awards and family photos
Liza Minnelli is auctioning off her wedding dress, family photos with mother Judy Garland, and a number of awards.
The Cabaret star, now 72, is auctioning off more than 2,000 of her belongings, including items belonging to her parents, Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli.
The auction, set to start on July 30, includes Minnelli’s dress from her 2002 wedding to the late David Gest, who died in 2016.
The auction booklet describes the “elaborately beaded wedding gown by Bob Mackie… worn by Liza for her wedding to David Gest.”
Also for sale is a white mink coat that was created for the star’s 2002 wedding, and a pair of Ruby slippers – a tribute to her late mother’s iconic role in The Wizard of Oz – that she wore for her 1974 wedding to Jack Haley Jr.
Also up for auction is the commemorative plaque presented to Minnelli when she was inaugurated into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as well as her father’s matching plaque.
One lot includes the iconic outfit that the star wore in her most notable film – the musical classic Cabaret.
Minnelli is also selling off dozens of awards she has received, including her Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination certificates, a Caring for Those with AIDS Award, a RIAA American Legend award, a Cannes Film Festival Tribute award, and three Las Vegas Entertainment Awards trophies – as well as her father’s Screen Directors Guild awards.
The auction also includes hundreds of personal family photos, including those of a young Liza with her parents.
More than 50 outfits from the star’s career including several from sitcom Arrested Development are also set to go under the hammer.
Minnelli’s longtime friend Michael Feinstein said that the belongings are being sold off because “in the last few years, she relocated to Los Angeles and made a conscious choice to simplify and relax for the first time in her life,” with her home “furnished beautifully… in clean, spare and elegant style.”
He said: “Instead of being paralysed by [keeping things in] storage spaces, and being in a mindset of change and making room for new things, she said, ‘Honey, it’s time for spring cleaning, and I mean purge with a capitol P.’
“It did not come without much thought and soul searching. The conclusion was that she could sit on these things and they would never see the light of day again or could send them out in the world and share them now and see them live again with others who would appreciate having them.”
Liza Minnelli (Roger Kisby/Getty)
Minnelli said: “My life is a gift of flowing friendships and relationships all collected in these objects.
“It is with many emotions I share them, knowing that that they will create new bridges for others as they have for me.
“I woke up one day and thought, ‘Honey, you ain’t gonna wait till you’ve bought the farm and leave your life on someone else’s doorstep.’ So, it was time to go there, and I have, and it feels good.”
