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A pair of ruby red slippers worn by actress Judy Garland in the classic film The Wizard of Oz sold for $28m (£22m) at auction in the US on Saturday.
One of four surviving pairs used in the film, the iconic sequined pumps were once stolen from a museum in Minnesota.
The online bidding started a month ago, with the chappals expected. According to Heritage Auctions, fetch as much as $3m (£2.35m) at auction – Estimate under $25m (£20m).
The auctioneers called the slippers the “Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia” and said their sale price made them the most valuable movie memorabilia ever sold at auction.
The winning bid drew applause at an auction room in Dallas, with the sale fueled by renewed interest in the musical following the recent release of the prequel movie Wicked.
Garland was just 16 when she played Dorothy in the classic 1939 musical The Wizard of Oz. Media outlet Variety ranked it second on its inaugural list of the “100 Greatest Movies of All Time”.
The film is a musical adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While the magic slippers are silver in the book, the film’s producers changed them to red to take advantage of the new Technicolor technology.
In the film, as in the book, a key moment occurs when Dorothy has to click her heels three times as she is forced to leave the magical land of Oz and return to Kansas and her Aunt Em. There’s no place like home” repeats.
While Garland wore several pairs of shoes during filming, only four are known to survive.
A pair of them is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. But the pair coming up for auction has its own unique history.
Collector Michael Shaw had loaned the slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were stolen in 2005.
Professional thief Terry Jon Martin used a hammer to smash the glass case and steal the slippers, believing they should be worth $1m insured because they were encrusted with real gemstones.
But when he took them to a “fence” – and the middleman who sells the stolen goods to discerning buyers – he discovered they were only glass.
So he gave the shoes to someone else. It wasn’t until 2018 that the FBI recovered the shoes in a sting operation. What happened to him during these 13 years is still unknown.
In 2023, Martin – who was in his 70s and used a wheelchair – pleaded guilty to stealing them, and was sentenced to time served.
“There is some closure, and we know for sure that Terry Jon Martin broke into our museum, but I want to know what happened to him after he left,” said John Kelsch, curator of the Judy Garland Museum. , 2023 told CBS News Minnesota.
“Just to do it because he thought they were real rubies and turn them into jewels. I mean, the price isn’t a ruby. The price is an American treasure, a national treasure. Without them knowing it. Stealing seems ridiculous.”
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