The famous ruby slippers from 'The Wizard of Oz' were auctioned for $32.5 million. The shiny red shoes were worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz in 1939, where she played the character of Dorothy. The shoes helped her return home by clicking her heels together in the movie. It is considered one of the most famous shoes in movie history.
The audition took place in Dallas on Saturday. The slippers were sold by Heritage Auctions on behalf of Michael Shaw, who was the previous owner of these rare shoes. The name of the new owner of the shoes is still kept anonymous. The shoes were sold for $28 million. After adding the fees and taxes, the price of ruby slippers comes to $32.5 million.
Judy Garland's ruby slippers break the record of Marilyn Monroe's subway dress
The ruby slippers were sold for $32.5 million, which is the most money ever paid for an item from a movie. Before this, the record was held by Marilyn Monroe’s subway dress from her 1955 movie The Seven Year Itch. The dress was sold for $4.6 million in 2011.
The online bidding started last month at $1.55 million. It stayed at that amount until the live bidding started on Saturday afternoon.
Heritage Auctions were expecting the slippers would sell for $3 million or more. As the bidding started, the auction house witnessed many people calling by phone to bid for the shoes. The bidding went on for around 15 minutes until it reached the final amount, which was 28 million.
The auction also had other things from The Wizard of Oz. One was a hat that the Wicked Witch of the West wore. Margaret Hamilton was the actress who played this character. The hat was sold for almost $3 million in the auction.
The history of The Wizard of Oz ruby slippers
There are only four pairs of Ruby slippers existing now, which makes them unique and rare. If we go down the history, the ruby slippers have also been stolen once in 2005.
The shoes were previously kept in the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and were stolen in 2005. They were missing for over 10 years. In 2018, the FBI found them during an operation by a man named Terry Jon Martin.
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These famous ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz were originally sold for $28 million on Saturday. The final amount after taxes and fees comes to $32.5 million. The museum has kept the name of the new owner of the ruby slippers private.
For now, the Smithsonian Museum has one pair of ruby slippers. The remaining three pairs, including these, are kept in private collections.
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