The ruby red slippers worn by Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” sold for $32.5 million at Heritage Auctions on Saturday, becoming the most expensive prop in movie history.
Despite the eye-popping price, the slippers — donned by actress Judy Garland in the 1939 film — were once believed to be essentially worthless — as was the hat for the Wicked Witch of the West, which sold for $2.93 million in the same auction Saturday.
The previous record for a movie-worn item was the $5.2 million paid for Marilyn Monroe’s iconic ivory pleated “Subway, which she wore in “Seven Year Itch."
The price also represent the largest paid for any item at Heritage this year, surpassing the 1932 Babe Ruth “Called Shot” jersey, which sold for $24.12 million in August.
With "Wicked" currently soaring at the box office, interest in original "Wizard of Oz" items proved to be extremely high.
The Cowardy Lion's glove, worn by actor Bert Lahr in the film, sold for $20,625 in another Saturday lot at Heritage.
Dorothy's slippers were basically forgotten after the film wrapped up, languishing in a studio warehouse at MGM for decades.
In 1970, Michael Shaw purchased the slippers, one of at least four from the original production, for just $2,000. Around the same time, Shaw acquired the hat, according to Heritage.
Shaw brought both pieces around the country for his tour, “Michael Shaw's Hollywood,” in the 1980s and 1990s. Shaw also lent the props to institutions for public display.
In 2005, while the slippers, which were insured for $1 million, were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota — located in Garland’s childhood home — a man named Terry Martin broke into the museum and left with the slippers, disappearing into the night.
The hunt for the slippers lasted more than a decade, despite the offer of a $1 million reward as well as 1 million Marriott points offered by the hotel. Shaw received around $800,000 from his insurance policy.
In 2018, the slippers were finally recovered thanks to a sting operation by the FBI and Grand Rapids Police Department, leading to the indictment of Martin, who pleaded guilty to “theft of an object of cultural heritage from the care, custody, or control of a museum” last year.
At the time, the FBI claimed the fair market of the slippers had reached $3.5 million and returned them to Shaw.
In 2012, Leonardo DiCaprio and Steven Spielberg paid $2 million for another pair of the slippers for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum.
The Judy Garland Museum had hoped to acquire the slippers and bring them back home.
Earlier this year, a bill was introduced by Minnesota State senator Justin Eichorn to appropriate money to purchase the slippers and loan them back to the museum. The museum has received at least $100,000 from the state in the time since, but the current total is unknown.
In its auction description for the hat, Heritage noted, “This is the first time this Wicked Witch hat has reunited with Mr. Shaw's Ruby Slippers since the theft almost 20 years ago.”
Heritage previously sold the same hat in 2020 for $252,000. Multiple hats were made for production of the movie, though this specific example has been screen-matched to the scene in Munchkinland in which the witch is first introduced.
In July, Janie Heitz, executive director of the Judy Garland Museum, told cllct of the slippers: “We just think it would be a really great happy ending to this saga for them to find a home. … In 'The Wizard of Oz,' she's trying to find home. You know, it's kind of like this full circle story of 'let's bring these slippers home.'"
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.