Stolen ‘Wizard of Oz’ Ruby Slippers Headed to Auction

A pair of Dorothy’s ruby slippers, worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, are on the auction block nearly 20 years after being stolen from a museum.

The slippers are up for sale at Heritage Auctions in Dallas, with bidding set to run through Dec. 7. (As of publication, the current highest bid is just over $810,000.) This pair was previously on display at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where they were stolen from in 2005.

It wasn’t until 2018 that the shoes were recovered, and just this past January, the convicted thief, Terry Martin, was sentenced to a year of probation. Martin earned a lenient sentence in part because he is in hospice care for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

According to Heritage Auctions, the ruby slippers are one of four surviving pairs worn by Garland in the classic 1939 film. They were originally uncovered — along with two other pairs — by costumer Kent Warner, who was tasked with organizing a famous MGM auction in 1970. This pair, however, was sold by Warner Bros. to the private collector Michael Shaw, who took them around the country on his “Hollywood on Tour” show and frequently lent them to the Judy Garland Museum. 

Shaw’s slippers are notably the “cross-matched sister shoes” to the pair that are famously on display at the Smithsonian Institute. (That pair was sold at the aforementioned 1970 auction, then donated to the Smithsonian in 1979.) Per a description, this pair is also “darker in color than any other known pair — a rich burgundy — likely the result of careful storage out of direct light.” 

As for the infamous shoe heist, that occurred in Aug. 2005 when a burglar broke into the Judy Garland Museum, smashed through the Plexiglass case housing the slippers, and absconded with them. Befitting a crime scene from a movie: no fingerprints were found, the museum’s alarm system did not alert a central dispatch, and the only piece of evidence was a single red sequin. The ensuing investigations led to dead-ends and counterfeits until a tip finally allowed the FBI to recover the slippers in a sting operation in Minneapolis in 2018. 

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According to Martin — the thief who eventually pleaded guilty to stealing the shoes — and his lawyer, the heist was a classic “one last score” scenario. Martin had previously dealt in stolen jewels and spent time in prison for burglary, but he claimed he was living a quiet life when an “old mob associate” contacted him about stealing the slippers. Martin eventually agreed, and while he pulled off the job, he soon found himself dismayed when he took them to a fence and learned Dorthy’s ruby slippers didn’t contain actual jewels. Not realizing the shoes had another worth, Martin claimed he washed his hands of the job and left the slippers with the man who’d recruited him.

In pleading guilty, Martin took responsibility for the heist but declined to name anyone else involved.