The technicolor world of the silver screen was iconically debuted with the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. From the set to the costumes, everything was vivid with deep jewel-toned contrast, and nothing was more iconic than the sparkly ruby red slippers. An MGM movie set of the slippers comes to auction after being missing for nearly two decades.
Luckily the owner, Michael Shaw, who is selling the slippers at the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions firm, recovered his investment, but it was a long wait. In 2005 the slippers were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota when someone went over the barrier, smashed the glass, and stole the slippers. While there are three other sets — one owned by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, one owned by the Smithsonian, and another owned by a private collector— this set of shoes saw film action on the set and were in iconic frames of the movie.
It wasn’t until an FBI tip in 2018 that the shoes were brought back to their original owner. The reformed mobster who stole the slippers pleaded guilty in 2023 and is paying $300 a month of a $23,000 fine to the museum while he is on hospice care instead of jail time. When recovered, the slippers were authenticated by comparing them to the Smithsonian pair.
While they are not studded with actual rubies (as the mobster initially thought when stealing them), they are considered one of the most iconic costume pieces in Hollywood. The shoes are made of wood pulp, silk thread, gelatin, plastic, and glass. The bows on the top of the toe areas have red glass beads on them, but the red of the shoes are glittery with red sequins.
The auction is set to happen in December, and it is estimated that the shoes can fetch either two to seven million dollars. Other memorabilia from the movie are up for sale alongside the slippers as well. The hate of the Wicked Witch of the West and the screen door of Dorothy’s Kansas home will be sold at auction.