Stolen in 2005 and recovered by the FBI in 2018, the iconic shoes are one of four surviving pairs and drew renewed attention with the release of 'Wicked'.
ADVERTISEMENT
A pair of sparkly ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz sold for $32.5 million (€30.5 million) at auction on Saturday.
The sale shattered Heritage Auctions’ $3 million (€2.8 million) estimate. Fast-paced bidding tripled the expected amount within minutes, with online bids initially at $1.55 million (€1.45 million).
After the slippers sold, the auctioneer told bidders and spectators in the room and watching online that the previous record for a piece of entertainment memorabilia was $5.52 million, for the white dress Marilyn Monroe famously wore atop a windy subway grate.
The slippers were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, by Terry Jon Martin, who was caught in 2023 after the FBI recovered the shoes in 2018. Martin, in poor health, was sentenced to time served in January. His alleged accomplice, Jerry Hal Saliterman, faces trial in January 2024.
The shoes were eventually returned in February to memorabilia collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned them to the museum. They were one of several pairs that Garland wore during the filming, but only four pairs are known to have survived. In the movie, to return from Oz to Kansas, Dorothy had to click her heels three times and repeat, “There’s no place like home.”
The auction also featured other The Wizard of Oz memorabilia, including Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch hat, which sold for $2.93 million (€2.75 million).
