At Dallas-based Heritage Auctions on Saturday, a pair of iconic ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” sold for an astonishing $28 million for an out-the-door total of $32.5 million, far exceeding the initial estimate of $3 million.
The auction house said in a news release that the slippers passed that number “within seconds” and that no other pair of ruby slippers have gone for close to that amount, reported NBC News.
Heritage Auctions said one pair sold in 2000 for $666,000. In 2012, Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio paid $2 million for another pair and donated them to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.
These slippers helped Heritage Auctions break a record for an entertainment auction, with Saturday’s totaling almost $40 million.
The slippers, previously stolen from a museum, were recovered by the FBI in 2018 and had been surrounded by a web of mystery since their theft in 2005, reported the Associated Press.
The famous pair of ruby slippers, renowned for their association with Judy Garland, was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in August 2005. The thief, Terry Jon Martin, now 77, broke into the museum using a hammer to shatter the glass display case and made off with the iconic footwear, as reported by the AP.
In October 2023, Martin pleaded guilty and, due to his poor health, was sentenced to time served in January as he was in a wheelchair and on supplemental oxygen.
His attorney, Dane DeKrey, explained that Martin, who had a lengthy criminal history of burglary, was motivated to commit one final crime after an associate with mob connections suggested that the shoes he sought to steal needed real jewels to account for their $1 million insurance value. However, Martin was later informed that the rubies were merely glass, prompting Martin to dispose of the slippers, though the attorney did not disclose how he did so, per the AP.
After thirteen years of investigation, the FBI received a tip in 2018 that led to the recovery of the stolen slippers in a covert operation. To verify their authenticity, the recovered shoes were compared with a pair housed at the Smithsonian, as records indicated that the pairs had been swapped at some point, with each containing one shoe from two distinct pairs of ruby slippers, according to information from the auction house, reported NBC News.
The slippers are one of only four surviving pairs used during the filming of the beloved 1939 musical.
The auction also featured other “Wizard of Oz” memorabilia, including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, which sold for $2.4 million and reached a final cost of $2.93 million to the buyer.
The renewed interest in the iconic story has been further fueled by the recent release of the film “Wicked,” a prequel exploring the character of the Wicked Witch of the West.