Dorothy Gale’s ruby slippers, an instantly recognizable piece of cinematic history worn by Judy Garland (1922–1969) in the classic 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz, sold for a record $32 million—$28 million plus taxes and fees—at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on Saturday.

The previous high for a piece of entertainment memorabilia had stood at $5.52 million since the 2011 sale of the Marilyn Monroe subway dress from the The Seven Year Itch (1955) at Los Angeles auction house Profiles in History.

Ahead of the sale, Heritage had listed the ruby slippers with an estimate of upwards of $3 million. Perhaps fueled by the popularity of the new hit movie musical Wicked, a retelling of the original story that recasts the Wicked Witch as a misunderstood hero, that price point was eclipsed in mere seconds.

“There is simply no comparison between Judy Garland’s ruby slippers and any other piece of Hollywood memorabilia,” Heritage Auctions executive vice President Joe Maddalena (who was the founder of Profiles in History) said in a statement. “It’s been a privilege for all of us at Heritage to be a part of the slippers’ epic journey over the rainbow and off to a new home.”

Auctioneer Mike Sadler directing bidding for the ruby slippers. Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

MGM Studios’ chief costume designer Gilbert Adrian (1903–1959) created the ruby slippers, decorating white silk pumps from Innes Shoe Co. with red fabric, shiny sequined organza overlays, and bejeweled red bows, and painting the soles red.

In the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book by L. Frank Baum (1856–1919), published in 1900, Dorothy wears Silver Shoes. The filmmakers wisely chose to highlight the capabilities of new Technicolor technology by changing them to a vibrant red color for the big screen.

Actors Ray Bolger (1904–1987), Jack Haley (1897–1979), Judy Garland (1922–1969) and Bert Lahr (1895–1967) in costume on the Yellow Brick Road in a scene from the film The Wizard of Oz (1939). Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images.

There are five surviving pairs of shoes from the film, including a set that a teenage girl won in a concert at the time of the movie’s release. The rest sat in MGM storage until 1970, when the studio sold 350,000 objects in the effort clear out its four backlots. One pair, now at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., sold for $15,000.

At the time, it was common for studio workers to take props as souvenirs without permission. Company costumer Kent Warner, who helped organize the auction, took one pair for himself. (A group including Steven Spielberg and Leonardo DiCaprio purchased them for $2 million in 2012 as a gift for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.)

Warner sold another pair, featuring a different “Arabian” design rejected during costume testing, to actress Debbie Reynolds; and what’s believed to be the last pair to collector Michael Shaw, along with one of the Wicked Witch hats worn by Margaret Hamilton in the film.

One of the Wicked Witch’s hats from The Wizard of Oz from the collection of Michael Shaw sold for $2.93 million at Heritage Auctions. Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

That final pair, which set the new auction record, have a particularly fascinating history, thanks to its high profile theft and eventual recovery. (Shaw also sold the hat at this weekend’s auction, where it fetched $2.93 million.)

In 2005, a thief stole the ruby slippers after Shaw loaned them to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for their annual Judy Garland Festival. A decade later, an anonymous donor offered a $1 million reward for their safe return. The F.B.I. successfully reclaimed the famed footwear in a 2018 sting operation in Minneapolis, bringing a 13-year-long investigation to a happy conclusion.

Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch and Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Fortunately, the Smithsonian was then hard at work on conservation efforts for its own pair of ruby slippers. (An anonymous donor gifted the shoes in 1979, and they are among the museum’s most popular and beloved artifacts.) The institution was able to help authenticate the recovered shoes, and determined that the stolen shoes were actually mates to theirs, the left and right shoes having been swapped some time after filming.

Smithsonian consultant Randy Struthers, a ruby slippers forensic expert, has conducted an exclusive analysis of the film to determine which pairs appeared in each scene. The two now mismatched pairs are the most prominently featured, including the close-up shots of Dorothy clicking her heels together saying “there’s no place like home.”

The Ruby Slippers recovered by the FBI and the Ruby Slipper’s in the museum’s collection are mismatched twins. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Earlier this year, Shaw was delighted to finally be reunited with his copy of the famed movie prop, which the Judy Garland Museum returned to him in a private ceremony.

“It’s like welcoming back an old friend I haven’t seen in years,” Shaw said. He then announced plans to sell his ruby slippers, nicknamed “The Traveling Shoes,” at Heritage.

A pair of worn looking brown gloves worn in the MGM film The Wizard of Oz (1939) by Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion. Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

True to their name—for more than a decade, they were part of the roving “Michael Shaw’s Hollywood on Tour” exhibition—the shoes went on a world tour ahead of the auction, with stops in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Tokyo.

The auction house has not identified the buyer for the ruby slippers. The Judy Garland Museum had launched a fundraising campaign in hope of placing the winning bid. But their $.3.5 million effort ultimately fell well short of the final purchase price, even with $100,000 in promised funding from Minnesota lawmakers and the support of Democratic vice presidential nominee and Governor Tim Walz, who promised “24/7, Ocean’s 11-proof security” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

✅And we’re buying Judy Garland’s damn slippers to make sure they remain safe at home in Grand Rapids – on display for all to enjoy – under 24/7, Ocean’s 11-proof security.

— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) May 30, 2024

“We may not have been the highest bidder, but we still get to celebrate the life & times of Judy Garland & The Wizard of Oz every day!” the museum wrote on Facebook.

For $25,000, the institution did go home with Bill Mack’s painting of the Wicked Witch getting zapped when trying to remove the ruby slippers from Dorothy’s feet, painted in 2007 on a panel from the original 1923 Hollywood Sign. The auction also sold the gloves Bert Lahr wore as the Cowardly Lion for $20,625, and a blonde wig Garland wore the first week of shooting for $30,000.

Bill Mack Painting of The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers on a Metal Panel of the Original Hollywood Sign. The painting sold for $25,000 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at Heritage Auctions. Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Other highlights included the Kevin McCallister’s (Macaulay Culkin) winter coat, hat, scarf, and mittens from Home Alone (1990) for $162,500; Marty McFly’s (Michael J. Fox) hoverboard from Back to the Future II (1989) for $237,500; and the game board from Jumanji (1995) for $275,000.

The sale totaled $38.6 million, eclipsing the previous record for an entertainment auction of $22.8 million, set 2011 by Heritage at their Debbie Reynolds sale. (That included the actress’s “Arabian” ruby slippers for $627,300.)

Ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

The ruby slippers thief, Terry Jon Martin, pled guilty to the crime last October. He admitted he had never seen the movie, and committed the theft at the behest of some old mob associates for a “final score,” according to the defense attorney’s sentencing memo.

Martin was under the mistaken assumption that the shoes were encrusted in actual rubies, not just glass stones. The 76-year-old is currently in hospice care, and was sentenced in February to just one year of supervised release and $23,500 in restitution to the museum.

In March, Minnesota’s Crystal Police Department charged a second man, Jerry Hal Saliterman, also 76, in connection with a crime. He is accused of having received the stolen slippers, and hiding them for years, buried in his backyard. As of July, authorities were pursuing six additional charges against Saliterman.