Pair of JUDY GARLAND’s ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ movie sells at auction for $28 million

Monday, December 09, 2024 - A pair of ruby slippers featured in the classic 1939 film‚ The Wizard of Oz’ and stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota in 2005, sold at auction for $28 million on Saturday, December 7.

The slippers, one of four surviving pairs Garland wore in the film – is the most valuable movie memorabilia ever sold at auction, according to a news release from Heritage Auctions.

“There is simply no comparison between Judy Garland’s ruby slippers and any other piece of Hollywood memorabilia,” Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in the release. “The breathtaking result reflects just how important movies and movie memorabilia are to our culture and to collectors.”

With auction house commissions, the slippers’ total price was a staggering $32.5 million, nearly 11 times what the auction house says was their pre-auction estimate of $3 million.

According to Robert Wilonsky, vice president for public relations at Heritage Auctions;“At $32.5 million, the slippers are the most valuable cinema treasures in the world, and they helped make this the most successful entertainment auction ever held.”

Other pairs have been to auction before, but none sold for nearly as much as the ones sold Saturday.

In 2000, one pair of ruby slippers from the movie auctioned for $666,000, according to the release. Years later, Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio bought a different pair for $2 million and donated them to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, according to the release.

On Saturday, bidding opened at $1.55 million and escalated quickly. According to the lot page, 25 bidders participated.

Only two bidders remained toward the end, and the slippers were sold to a bidder participating over the phone.

The shoes are among the most beloved artifacts from the iconic 1939 movie.

The slippers “were much more than just a piece of Hollywood memorabilia, much more than a valuable piece of industry history,” said Rhys Thomas, the author of “The Ruby Slippers of Oz.”

“They transcended Hollywood, to the point where they represented the powerful image of innocence to all America,” he said, according to the lot page.

The slippers auctioned Saturday had been lent by collector Michael Shaw to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but were stolen from the museum in 2005. They were recovered in 2018 during a sting operation in Minneapolis.