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Dorothy’s Red Ruby Slippers from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Sell for a Whopping $28 M. at Auction
ARTnews ^ | December 9, 2024 | George Nelson

Posted on 12/09/2024 1:59:27 PM PST by nickcarraway

A pair of red ruby slippers worn by the actress Judy Garland while playing Dorothy in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz sold at auction for $28 million on Saturday.

Heritage Auctions, based in Dallas, slapped a $3 million estimate on the slippers. Pre-sale bidding had taken the price up to $1.55 million before fierce phone bidding propelled it to $10 million within three minutes. After 15 minutes of drama, the gavel finally came down at the astonishing sum.

With the auction house’s fee tagged on, the unknown buyer will pay a total $32.5 million for the sequinned shoes.

Robert Wilonsky, Heritage Auctions’ vice-president, said almost 1,000 people had been tracking the slippers, with the house’s webpage displaying them hitting nearly 43,000 views by Thursday.

The red shoes were on show at the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in 2005, when they were stolen after a thief smashed the glass display case. Their whereabouts was unknown until the FBI found the shoes a decade later. A 77-year-old man named Terry Martin was later convicted; he had a long history of burglary and reportedly said he wanted to pull off “one last score.” He claimed that an old mob associate had told him that the slippers were adorned with real jewels. However, when he found out the “rubies” were in fact glass, he got rid of them.

As a result, Rhys Thomas, the author of The Ruby Slippers of Oz, wrote that the shoes have seen “more twists and turns than the Yellow Brick Road.”

The Judy Garland Museum was one of the bidders on Saturday. It had campaigned for donations to boost the cash raised by the city of Grand Rapids at its annual Judy Garland festival to buy them back. Minnesota lawmakers had also set aside $100,000, but the $28 million final pricetag ultimately proved too much.

After the slippers sold, the auctioneer told the room that the previous auction record for a piece of entertainment memorabilia was $5.52 milllion for the windswept white dress famously worn by Marilyn Monroe.

Saturday’s auction in Dallas also included a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton, who played the original Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. It sold for $2.93 million (buyer’s fees included).

Several pairs of ruby slippers were worn by Garland during filming, but only four are known to have survived. One pair is on show at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: dorothy; judygarland; rubyredslippers; rubyslippers; wizardofoz
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I heard these shoes used to belong to actor Van Johnson, i that true? He may, or may not, be a 'Friend of Dorothy.'
1 posted on 12/09/2024 1:59:27 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Did a gay billionaire buy them?


2 posted on 12/09/2024 2:02:55 PM PST by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
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To: nickcarraway

And I thought I had bought some dumb sht in my life!


3 posted on 12/09/2024 2:04:41 PM PST by Ikeon ( Why don't they, do what they say? Say what they mean? One thing leads to another. )
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To: Ikeon

The worth of something is what someone is willing to pay for it......even if it is a colossal waste of money.


4 posted on 12/09/2024 2:08:58 PM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: fwdude

Are you referring to the duct taped banana?


5 posted on 12/09/2024 2:09:55 PM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: nickcarraway

Red sequins must be the most expensive objects by weight in the world.


6 posted on 12/09/2024 2:10:20 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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To: V_TWIN

I don’t think Mike(chelle) is up to a billionaire yet.


7 posted on 12/09/2024 2:15:13 PM PST by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
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To: fwdude

And they’re dainty....not stretchable Muk Luks.


8 posted on 12/09/2024 2:20:23 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: All

I would be wary of counterfeits. Terrified really. I was traumatized from the time someone broke into my house and stole all of my belongings and replaced it with exact duplicates. The police never believed my story and acted as if were some kind of kook.


9 posted on 12/09/2024 2:23:54 PM PST by BipolarBob (Enough of this talk about narcissists, let's get back to talking about me.)
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To: fwdude

Exactly. Any chance that the person who bought them WASN’T gay??? LOL


10 posted on 12/09/2024 2:29:20 PM PST by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: nickcarraway

I think it was the early 70s when a pair went for $12,000.


11 posted on 12/09/2024 2:30:58 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: nickcarraway

If they were stolen from the museum, why were they not returned to the museum?


12 posted on 12/09/2024 2:32:54 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: BipolarBob

Hey, you stole a Steven Wright joke ;)


13 posted on 12/09/2024 2:33:10 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Anybody know WHO bought them?


14 posted on 12/09/2024 2:33:22 PM PST by FroggyTheGremlim (Hail to Pitt!)
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To: V_TWIN

50 years from now, when the Boomers and even most of Generation X are gone, the shoes will be worth about $6.99 (or whatever the currency is then) at the local thrift store.


15 posted on 12/09/2024 2:33:36 PM PST by Wallace T.
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To: V_TWIN

True. It’s worth whatever someone will pay for it. 2 fruits fighting over a pair of almost 100 year old shoes is debauchery. Kinda like the tulip wars. Human insanity.


16 posted on 12/09/2024 2:34:06 PM PST by Ikeon ( Why don't they, do what they say? Say what they mean? One thing leads to another. )
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To: nickcarraway

Maybe he heard of my plight and stole it from me?


17 posted on 12/09/2024 2:34:54 PM PST by BipolarBob (Enough of this talk about narcissists, let's get back to talking about me.)
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To: nickcarraway

After clicking the heels 3 times did they take him home?


18 posted on 12/09/2024 2:41:51 PM PST by Vaquero (In Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'llz just kill you. )
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To: Ikeon

You would think the costumes would be as or more desirable to own.....I mean tin man, cowardly lion and the flying monkey suits?

I’d think they’d be worth a mint.


19 posted on 12/09/2024 2:44:30 PM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: nickcarraway

I heard the shoes don’t really work.

At best you end up in New Jersey not Kansas.


20 posted on 12/09/2024 3:55:45 PM PST by DannyTN
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