When last we checked in on Judy Garland’s Wizard of Oz ruby slippers, they were clicking their heels thrice at Heritage Auctions, waiting for the highest bidder to give them a new place like home. This particular pair were one of four known surviving sets (it’s common for movies to make multiples of key costumes and props), and garnered the nickname “The Stolen Pair” when they were nabbed from the Judy Garland Museum in 2005 by a mobster looking to pull one last con. (He also thought the shoes had actual rubies in them, a detail I consider priceless.) The FBI recovered the slippers in 2018 and two men have since been charged with the theft. So the auction finally happened on Saturday, December 7, a date which will live in movie memorabilia infamy, when “The Stolen Pair” sold for $28 million. Well, $32.5 million, adding in Heritage’s fees. Is it a lot of money? Yes, in fact the sale broke records. But I don’t mind this film treasure out-selling a banana and duct tape modern art.

“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 [news] 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.”

…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.

[From CNN]

Ok, I want to know everything about the person who bought the screen door. Is this a Wizard of Oz fan, a Judy Garland fan, or a screen door aficionado? Do they plan on exhibiting the screen door as the movie memorabilia it is, or will it be installed in a home for regular use? Was this purchased (for $37,500!) out of love for the piece itself, or was it a runner up after the bidder got priced out of the ruby slipper action? I’m obsessed and need these answers!!

As of this writing, the winner of the ruby slippers is still anonymous, although the Judy Garland Museum has confirmed it wasn’t them. Apparently this pair are darker/richer in color than any other surviving sets, likely thanks to being out of sight while in storage and then later when they were on the lam. If you’re wondering what the fancy footwear has been up to since their recovery in 2018, part of that time included a thorough examination by a “ruby slipper forensic investigator,” who declared they were a cross-match to another pair on display at The Smithsonian (meaning the right shoe of the pair that just sold matches the left shoe of The Smithsonian’s). As far as I can tell from the press release, the pairs remain cross-matched. And I remain plain old cross that I didn’t know growing up that “ruby slipper forensic investigator” was a viable trade. It could’ve changed the entire trajectory of my life!

Embed from Getty Images

Embed from Getty Images

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Images credit: Getty and Heritage Auctions/Cover Images