The long-awaited auction of a dress worn by Judy Garland in the American film classic The Wizard of Oz has fallen through.

A federal district court in Manhattan suspended the auction in Beverly Hills, California, last week after doubts about ownership arose.

The blue and white checked dress with a light blouse was thought to have been lost for decades.

As the archivists of the Catholic University of America in Washington researched, the Oscar winner Mercedes McCambridge ("The Exorcist") had given the dress to the head of the film institute of the university, the priest Gilbert Hartke, during a guest semester in the early seventies.

After the priest's death in 1986, the costume was gone.

It finally turned up again last year during renovations at the Catholic University of America – in a shoebox.

The private university decided to auction off the dress Garland wore in the role of Dorothy in 1939.

The proceeds should benefit the film institute.

Who owns the dress?

When the Bonhams auction house announced the May 24 auction of the costume a few weeks ago, a niece of the deceased priest also became aware.

As the minister's heir, Barbara Ann Hartke informed the college and the auction house that Garland's dress was hers.

"There is no evidence that the deceased gave it to the Catholic University, formally or informally," the 81-year-old said in her subsequent lawsuit.

Bonhams auction house estimates the costume to be worth at least $800,000.

One of the four surviving dresses Garland wore while filming the film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold for around $1.5 million in 2015.

The Catholic University does not want to admit defeat for the time being.

The university's lawyers referred in court to the principles of the Catholic order of the Dominicans, to which the late priest Hartke belonged.

He swore "never to accept gifts as a private person".

The court is now examining whether Hartke's niece still has a claim to the dress, which even after more than 80 years is still one of Hollywood's most famous costumes.