Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz sold at Heritage Auctions on December 7, 2024, for a reported $28 million winning bid. The buyer’s reported total, including the auction-house fee, was $32.5 million—two different figures for the same sale.
What did the ruby slippers sell for?
The Associated Press reported a $28 million winning bid and a $32.5 million buyer total including the auction-house fee. Minnesota Public Radio News also reported the sale at $28 million. The bid is the amount used in the headline; the higher total reflects the buyer’s fee-inclusive cost.
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Heritage’s pre-sale estimate was $3 million or more, according to AP. The winning bid substantially exceeded that estimate, but the estimate and the buyer’s total are not interchangeable: one was an expectation before bidding, while the other was the reported final cost to the buyer.
Why was the sale called a record?
AP described the sale as a record for entertainment memorabilia at the time. Its report compared the slippers with the previous record it cited: $5.52 million for Marilyn Monroe’s white dress. That is a contemporaneous comparison from December 2024, not a guarantee that the slippers still hold the record today.
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The price reflected the sale of a famous film artifact with an unusually prominent history, rather than simply the value of a pair of shoes. AP reported that the auction drew strong bidder interest. The slippers’ association with Garland’s Dorothy, their theft and recovery, and the auction catalog’s identification of the pair as screen matched all contributed to the story surrounding this particular lot.
Which slippers were sold?
They were Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, the 1939 film. Heritage Auctions titled lot 89182 “Judy Garland ‘Dorothy Gale’ Screen Matched Ruby Slippers” and described the pair as screen matched in its catalog. That identification is Heritage’s auction-catalog claim; the FBI’s recovery account documents the theft and recovery, not the catalog’s screen-match analysis.
Heritage’s catalog gives the auction house’s detailed description of the offered object: lot 89182 catalog.
How did the slippers go from theft to auction?
- 2005 — stolen from display. The slippers were on display at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were stolen. The FBI’s account describes the case and its recovery: FBI account of the ruby slippers’ recovery.
- 2018 — recovered by the FBI. The FBI recovered the slippers after the theft.
- 2024 — returned and sold. The FBI says the slippers were returned to their rightful owner in 2024. AP identifies the owner as collector Michael Shaw, who had loaned the pair to the museum. Heritage auctioned them on December 7, 2024.
For contemporaneous coverage of the sale and its figures, see the Associated Press report and Minnesota Public Radio News report.
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What the $28 million figure does—and does not—mean
- $28 million: the winning bid reported by AP.
- $32.5 million: the buyer’s reported total including the auction-house fee, according to AP.
- $3 million or more: the pre-sale estimate reported by AP.
These figures describe different stages or components of the transaction. The $28 million figure is not the fee-inclusive buyer total, and the $32.5 million figure should not be described as the winning bid.
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