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The ruby slippers sold at Heritage Auctions on December 7, 2024, for a $28 million winning bid—or $32.5 million including the buyer’s premium. They were Michael Shaw’s pair, stolen from a Minnesota museum in 2005, recovered by the FBI in 2018, and returned to him in 2024. Their famous red sparkle came from sequins, rhinestones, and beads—not real rubies.
How much did the ruby slippers sell for?
Heritage Auctions sold the pair for a winning bid of $28 million on December 7, 2024. The reported total of $32.5 million includes the buyer’s premium, the fee added to the winning bid. The two figures describe the same sale, not competing estimates. The buyer was described as unknown in contemporaneous reporting.
The sale price belongs to this particular auction. The cited reporting does not establish a broader appraisal benchmark or a series of comparable sales from which to infer a general market value.
Whose pair was sold?
The auctioned slippers belonged to collector Michael Shaw. They were not the separate pair held by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Smithsonian records describe its own pair as mismatched and identify Shaw’s as the reciprocal mismatched pair. That distinction matters: several production pairs existed, and not every surviving slipper is the same object or has the same history.
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- Officially licensed
- Heel height: 2.5"
- Man made material
- Care: Spot clean
- Imported
The Smithsonian’s collection record gives details of its own pair: the right shoe is size 5BC and the left is size 5C, and the shoes differ in features including their inner heel grips, lengths, throat heights, and heel caps. Those measurements describe the Smithsonian pair, not the auctioned shoes.
How were the slippers made—and were they covered in rubies?
No. “Ruby” describes the slippers’ vivid red appearance, not their gemstone content. Smithsonian documentation describes red-dyed shoes with silk faille overlays covered in rows of red sequins. The bows were made from stiff cotton buckram and decorated with red rhinestones and bugle beads. Each shoe has about 2,400 sequins, according to the National Museum of American History’s collection record.
Rank #2
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The sparkle came from costume work: dyed fabric, reflective sequins, rhinestones, and beads combined to create the striking effect on screen. The Smithsonian’s material description is for its collection pair; it also records that Shaw’s pair was the reciprocal mismatched pair.
How were the slippers stolen and recovered?
- 1970 — Collector Michael Shaw acquired a pair. During the dispersal of MGM wardrobe and memorabilia, costume craftsperson Kent Warner found ruby-slipper pairs. Smithsonian Magazine reported that Warner sold a pair to Shaw for $2,000 along with other costume items; that figure was not a stand-alone price for the slippers alone.
- 2005 — Shaw’s pair was stolen. The shoes were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were taken.
- 2018 — The FBI recovered them. The FBI announced the recovery following a sting operation. Smithsonian conservators were consulted to help identify and conserve the recovered shoes.
- March 2024 — The slippers were returned to Shaw. The FBI and Grand Rapids Police Department returned them at the Judy Garland Museum. FBI Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. said, “We are incredibly honored to return the ruby slippers to their rightful owner.”
- December 7, 2024 — The pair went to auction. Heritage Auctions sold Shaw’s slippers for the $28 million winning bid, reported as $32.5 million including the buyer’s premium.
Why are there different ruby-slipper pairs?
Multiple production pairs were made for The Wizard of Oz, so the phrase “the real ruby slippers” can refer to more than one authentic pair from the film’s production. Some accounts also distinguish screen-test shoes when counting surviving pairs. Without specifying the source and what it counts, a single total can be misleading.
Rank #3
- Officially licensed
- Heel height: 2.5"
- Man made material
- Care: Spot clean
- Imported
The clearest distinction for this story is provenance: Shaw’s pair was stolen, recovered, returned, and auctioned; the Smithsonian holds a different pair. The Smithsonian’s record explains that its pair is mismatched and that Shaw’s is the reciprocal mismatched pair. Similarities in construction do not make the two sets the same artifact.
What did conservation involve?
The National Museum of American History undertook an approximately two-year conservation project on its own pair. Smithsonian Magazine described the slippers as composites of materials requiring different treatments; conservators stabilized broken or fraying threads and realigned sequins that had rotated or flipped. Separately, the FBI asked Smithsonian conservators to compare the recovered pair’s construction and materials with the museum’s pair. The Smithsonian’s conservation project should not be confused with its assistance evaluating the FBI-recovered shoes.
Rank #4
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Why do the slippers matter to film history?
Judy Garland wore the slippers as Dorothy in MGM’s 1939 Technicolor adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel. The National Museum of American History notes that the film won five Academy Awards, including Best Original Song and Best Original Score. The slippers connect the film’s visual identity to the practical work of costume makers—and, through their survival, to decades of collecting, museum display, theft investigation, conservation, and public interest.
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