Want to own a piece of cinema history? Well, if you have a few million in your pocket, you can spend it on ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland as Dorothy in the 1939 cinema classic The Wizard of Oz.
These ruby slippers, one of several pairs used in the movie, are currently up for auction organized by Heritage Auction. The highest bid at the moment is $1.15 million.
No one knows how many pairs of ruby slippers were made for the movie, but four are known to have survived. One of them surfaced at an auction in 2011 and was sold for $510,000. The one sold by Heritage Auction belongs to famous memorabilia collector Michael Shaw and comes with an interesting story.
Shaw loaned the ruby slippers to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, back in 2005, only for someone to break the display case and steal them shortly after. It wasn’t until 2018 that the pair was recovered by the FBI. Apparently, the thief believed they were adorned with real jewels.
“One cannot find anything more desirable in this field than these prized Ruby Slippers. They are alive in the hearts of hundreds of millions of people around the world and will be the centerpiece of any collection,” Heritage Auctions stated in the listing.
