Dorothy's ruby slippers sell for $28m at auction

A pair of iconic ruby slippers from the beloved movie 'The Wizard of Oz' has recently been sold for an astonishing $28 million, which is about £22 million, at an auction held in the United States. These slippers were famously worn by actress Judy Garland in her role as Dorothy in the classic 1939 film. This particular pair is one of only four surviving pairs that were used during the filming of the movie. The slippers have a fascinating history, as they were once stolen from a museum in Minnesota. The online bidding for the slippers began a month prior to the auction, and they were initially expected to sell for around $3 million, which turned out to be a significant underestimation by a whopping $25 million. The auctioneers referred to the slippers as the 'Holy Grail of Hollywood memorabilia,' and their final selling price has made them the most valuable movie memorabilia ever sold at auction. Judy Garland was just 16 years old when she portrayed Dorothy, and the film is based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. ' In the original book, the magical slippers were silver, but the filmmakers decided to change them to red to take advantage of the new Technicolor technology that was available at the time. A pivotal moment in the film occurs when Dorothy clicks her heels three times while saying, 'There's no place like home,' which allows her to leave the magical land of Oz and return to her home in Kansas with her Auntie Em. While several pairs of shoes were used by Garland during the filming, only four pairs are known to have survived to this day. One of these pairs is currently on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. However, the pair that was sold at auction has a unique story of its own. Collector Michael Shaw had loaned the slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were stolen in 2005. The thief, Terry Jon Martin, broke the glass case with a hammer to steal the slippers, mistakenly believing that their insured value of $1 million indicated they were covered in real gemstones. When he attempted to sell them to a 'fence,' a person who sells stolen goods, he discovered that the slippers were actually made of glass. After this realization, he gave the shoes to someone else. It wasn't until 2018 that the FBI managed to recover the slippers during a sting operation. The details of what happened to the slippers during the 13 years they were missing remain unknown. In 2023, Martin, who was in his 70s and used a wheelchair, pleaded guilty to the theft and was sentenced to time served. John Kelsch, the curator of the Judy Garland Museum, expressed his thoughts on the situation, stating, 'There's some closure, and we do know definitely that Terry Jon Martin did break into our museum, but I'd like to know what happened to them after he let them go. ' He also remarked on the absurdity of Martin stealing the slippers without realizing their true value, saying, 'The value is not rubies. The value is an American treasure, a national treasure. To steal them without knowing that seems ludicrous.