Pair of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ sell at auction for $28 million

By Maria Sole Campinoti, CNN

(CNN) — A pair of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” which were stolen from a Minnesota museum almost 20 years ago, sold at auction for $28 million Saturday.

The pair – 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.

“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,” according to Robert Wilonsky, vice president for public relations at Heritage Auctions.

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, CNN previously reported.

FBI agents this year reunited the slippers with Shaw, who “likened the experience to a heartfelt reunion with a long-lost friend.”

Terry Martin and Jerry Hal Saliterman, both in their 70s, were separately charged with the theft. Martin pleaded guilty in 2023, while Saliterman, who was charged in 2024, maintains he’s innocent, CNN previously reported.

Only four pairs of the slippers used in the film are still known to exist, according to Heritage Auctions and the office of the US attorney for North Dakota. One pair is housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, though they were initially mismatched.

Other items from the iconic movie were sold during Saturday’s auction, including a hat belonging to the Wicked Witch character (more than $2 million); the screen door ($37,500) from Dorothy’s Kansas home; the MGM contract signed by the “Over the Rainbow” songwriters ($23,125); and Judy Garland’s “Dorothy Gale” wig ($30,000) she used in the first week of shooting, the release says.

CNN’s Scottie Andrew contributed to this report.

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