The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers (recovered 'heist' pair)

Silver shoes turned red

In L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel, Dorothy's magic shoes are silver. Screenwriter Noel Langley changed them to red for MGM's film, a color that would show off the three-strip Technicolor used for every scene in Oz. The Kansas scenes were shot in black and white with a sepia tone, so the red shoes belong to the world of color.

Gilbert Adrian, MGM's head costume designer, built them from white silk pumps supplied by the Innes Shoe Company in Los Angeles. Each shoe carries about 2,300 sequins; red bugle beads were tried and proved too heavy. The bows are Art Deco-style, set with red glass jewels and rhinestones.

No one knows exactly how many pairs were made. Producer Mervyn LeRoy recalled 'five or ten pairs,' while the wardrobe supervisor said six identical pairs. Every surviving pair runs between sizes 5 and 6, in widths from B to D.

Judy Garland and the costume designer

Frances Ethel Gumm was born June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. MGM signed her at 13 in September 1935, and she was cast as Dorothy at 16 in 1938. Filming began October 13, 1938, and principal photography ended March 16, 1939. Victor Fleming became the primary director after Richard Thorpe and George Cukor; Mervyn LeRoy produced.

The film cost $2.77 million, MGM's most expensive production to that point. It won Academy Awards for 'Over the Rainbow' and for its score, and Garland received a special Academy Juvenile Award for her 1939 performances. She died in London on June 22, 1969, at 47. Her birthplace in Grand Rapids became the Judy Garland Museum, the place this pair would be stolen from.

Adrian, born Adrian Adolph Greenburg in 1903, led MGM's costume department from 1928 to 1941 and dressed Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn and Norma Shearer across more than 250 films. He left the studio in 1941 to open his own fashion house and died in 1959.

America in 1939

The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 15, 1939, after an earlier preview opening in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and went into general release on August 25. One week later, on September 1, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began.

It was a crowded year for American culture. The New York World's Fair opened in April, Marian Anderson sang to 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial, Lou Gehrig gave his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium, The Grapes of Wrath was published and Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta in December.

The film's long life came later, on television. CBS first broadcast it on November 3, 1956, and it became an annual tradition, which is how generations of children came to know the shoes. It was named to the National Film Registry in 1989.

The heist and the homecoming

The pairs scattered after MGM sold its costume stock at auction in 1970. One pair sold there for $15,000 to an anonymous buyer and was later donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. Collector Michael Shaw bought this pair in 1970 from Kent Warner for $2,000 and later lent it to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids.

On the night of August 27-28, 2005, Terry Jon Martin broke into the museum with a small sledgehammer, shattering a glass door and then the Plexiglas case. He later said an old mob associate had told him the shoes were set with real rubies. He passed them to a fence in less than 48 hours, learned the jewels were glass and was paid nothing. For years nothing was heard of them, despite a $1 million reward offered by an anonymous donor in Arizona.

The break came in 2017, when a man came forward claiming he could help get the slippers back. After nearly a year of investigation, the FBI recovered them in a sting in Minneapolis in 2018. Investigators later said the shoes had spent years buried in a backyard in Crystal, Minnesota, the hometown of Jerry Hal Saliterman, who was charged as the fence who hid them.

Martin, by then in his 70s, was indicted in May 2023, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to theft of a major artwork and was sentenced on January 29, 2024, to time served because of failing health. Saliterman was indicted in March 2024 on theft and witness-tampering charges; he died on March 16, 2025, before his case was resolved, and the charges were dismissed.

The slippers were returned to Shaw in 2024. On December 7, 2024, they sold at auction in Dallas for a $28 million hammer price, $32.5 million with buyer's premium, against a pre-sale estimate of $3 million or more. Bidding had reached $1.55 million online before the live sale. The previous record for entertainment memorabilia was $5.52 million for Marilyn Monroe's subway-grate dress.

How the stolen pair was proven real

After the recovery the FBI took the shoes to the Smithsonian, whose conservators knew their own pair in microscopic detail. Objects conservator Dawn Wallace and preservation manager Richard Barden led the comparison, with conservation scientist Gwenaelle Kavich analyzing the materials.

The comparison turned up something no one expected. The Smithsonian's own pair was mismatched: sizes 5C and 5BC, marked '#1 Judy Garland' and '#6 Judy Garland,' with heel caps, bows, width and shape that did not agree. The recovered pair had the same problem, in reverse. Its left shoe matched the Smithsonian's right and vice versa, and laid side by side the four shoes formed two matched pairs, apparently split up around the 1970 sale.

Small details clinched it. Both pairs had clear glass beads painted red on the bows, an on-set repair never published before. The wear, fading and flaking of the sequins matched, and the analysis found silver-layered sequins, cadmium in the red paint, brass prongs holding the glass beads, cotton thread and orange-red felt on the soles, all consistent with 1930s manufacture.

Timeline

1. 1900

   L. Frank Baum's novel gives Dorothy silver shoes.

2. Oct 13, 1938

   Filming of The Wizard of Oz begins.

3. Mar 16, 1939

   Principal photography ends.

4. Aug 15, 1939

   The film premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

5. Nov 3, 1956

   First television broadcast, beginning an annual tradition.

6. 1970

   MGM sells its costumes at auction; Michael Shaw buys this pair from Kent Warner for $2,000.

7. Aug 28, 2005

   The pair is stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

8. 2017

   A man comes forward claiming he can help return the slippers.

9. 2018

   The FBI recovers the slippers in a sting in Minneapolis; Smithsonian conservators confirm them.

10. May 2023

    Terry Jon Martin is indicted for the theft.

11. Oct 2023

    Martin pleads guilty to theft of a major artwork.

12. Jan 29, 2024

    Martin is sentenced to time served.

13. Mar 2024

    Jerry Hal Saliterman is indicted as the alleged fence who hid the slippers.

14. Dec 7, 2024

    The slippers sell at auction in Dallas for $32.5 million with premium.

15. Mar 16, 2025

    Saliterman dies; the charges against him are dismissed.

The world in 1939

• Apr 9, 1939

  Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial before 75,000 people.

• Apr 14, 1939

  John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is published.

• Apr 30, 1939

  The New York World's Fair opens.

• May 1, 1939

  Batman debuts in Detective Comics #27.

• Jul 4, 1939

  Lou Gehrig gives his farewell speech at Yankee Stadium.

• Sep 1, 1939

  Germany invades Poland and World War II begins.

• Dec 15, 1939

  Gone with the Wind premieres in Atlanta.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers (recovered 'heist' pair) is number 1 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (1 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• In L. Frank Baum's book the shoes are silver; the film made them red to show off Technicolor.
• The thief believed the bows held real rubies. They are glass, and he was paid nothing.
• Each shoe carries about 2,300 sequins; red bugle beads were tried and were too heavy.
• The Smithsonian's pair and this pair are mismatched twins: swap one shoe each and both become true pairs.
• Collector Michael Shaw paid $2,000 for this pair in 1970. It sold for $32.5 million in 2024.
• A different pair, the ornate 'Arabian' test pair with curled toes, sold for $510,000 in 2011.
• Garland was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the town whose museum the slippers were stolen from.