Dorothy's 'Ruby Slippers' Recovered After Theft... Final Auction Price Surprises Many

Appearing at Auction for the First Time in Over 20 Years, Sold for 39.9 Billion KRW

The red ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland, who played the main character Dorothy in the movie 'The Wizard of Oz,' were auctioned off for $28 million (about 39.9 billion KRW) nearly 20 years after being stolen.

According to CNN on the 8th, the ruby slippers worn by Garland in the film were put up for online auction. The red ruby slippers, which were sold earlier that day, had originally been displayed at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, Garland's hometown.

The red ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland, who played the protagonist Dorothy in the movie "The Wizard of Oz." Photo by AFP Yonhap News

Michael Shaw, a prop collector, bought and kept the slippers in the 1970s before lending them to the museum.

However, in 2005, someone broke the museum's door and display case glass with a hammer and stole the slippers. The thief was not caught, and the whereabouts of the slippers remained unknown. Later, in 2018, the FBI recovered the slippers after an investigation, and last year, Terry John Martin, a resident near Grand Rapids who stole the slippers, was prosecuted and found guilty.

Shaw, the owner of the slippers, got them back in February and put them up for auction this time.

Heritage Auctions, which conducted the auction, initially expected the slippers to sell for more than $3 million (420 million KRW). The final winning bid, including auction fees, reached $32.5 million (4.63 billion KRW), nearly 11 times higher than the estimated price.

The winning slippers are one of the four remaining pairs of ruby slippers worn by Garland while playing Dorothy.

In the movie, after finishing her adventure, Dorothy asks the Wizard of Oz how to return home. The wizard replies, “Close your eyes and click the heels of the ruby slippers three times, and think to yourself, ‘There’s no place like home.’”

Ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the movie The Wizard of Oz, revealed at a press conference held at the FBI office in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on September 4, 2018. Photo by AP Yonhap News

The first thing that comes to mind when hearing this is the sparkling shoes called the ‘ruby slippers.’ These are the shoes Dorothy wore when she returned to her hometown, Kansas, after her fantastic adventure. Judy Garland, who played Dorothy, is known to have worn several pairs of ruby slippers alternately during filming.

Of the remaining three pairs, two are displayed at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (SNMAH) and the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which organizes the Academy Awards, respectively, and one pair is known to be owned by a private collector.

'The Wizard of Oz' was produced based on L. Frank Baum’s 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,' published in 1900 by Chicago’s George M. Hill Publishing Company, and was released in 1939.

Meanwhile, it was reported in the media that John Martin, the thief who stole the slippers, confessed in January that he was tempted by the ‘last shot’ and participated in the theft. At the time of stealing the slippers, Martin reportedly had no knowledge of the cultural significance of the ‘ruby slippers’ and had never seen the movie.