The $480,000 dress : The Wizard of Oz dress is sold in a Hollywood auction

The Wizard of Oz has become one of television's best-loved Christmas traditions (BBC)

Couture ballgowns regularly sell for thousands of pounds, but those dresses are made to measure from expensive fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail. The blue gingham dress from The Wizard of Oz is a rather more humble affair.

Nonetheless, the dress, which Judy Garland made famous in the 1939 musical, has fetched $430,000 (£270,500) at auction. It was the most expensive item in a sale which also saw the purchase of the a skirt Marilyn Monroe wore in River of No Return (1954) for $50,000 (£31,500) and the dress Julie Andrews wore in The Sound of Music (1965) for $38,400 (£24,150).