THE FAMED WIZARD OF OZ SHOES WILL STEP UP TO THE AUCTION BLOCK IN DECEMBER AFTER AN INTERNATIONAL TOUR
By Robert Wilonsky • Photos by Josh David Jordan
During a recent private ceremony at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, collector Michael Shaw was reunited with his pair of ruby slippers stolen from the museum in the summer of 2005.
“It’s like welcoming back an old friend I haven’t seen in years,” said a teary-eyed Shaw as he stood beside the slippers and the federal agents and local authorities who spent almost two decades tracking down the Technicolor treasures from 1939’s beloved The Wizard of Oz. For the moment, at least, there was no place like home.
The emotional moment collector Michael Shaw was reunited with the ruby slippers. Now he has consigned the shoes with Heritage Auctions.
But the reunion was brief because immediately following that ceremony in Garland’s childhood home, Shaw turned over the slippers to Heritage Auctions, with which he has consigned the slippers known as “The Traveling Shoes” because of their long, storied exhibition history. Thanks to their 2018 recovery by the FBI and Shaw’s decision to part with the historic pair, their journey is not yet over.
Later this year, Heritage will take Dorothy’s ruby slippers on an international tour, including stops in Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo. Heritage will then offer the ruby slippers at auction in December.
“You cannot overstate the importance of Dorothy’s ruby slippers: They are the most important prop in Hollywood history,” says Heritage Auctions Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena. “This pair is precious as it hails from the legendary collection of Michael Shaw, and we are honored he has partnered with Heritage. As TCM host Ben Mankiewicz once said, these slippers ‘symbolize hope,’ and we’re thrilled they will journey down the yellow brick road to the auction block to a new home.”
Only four pairs of ruby slippers are known to have survived the 1939 filming of ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ Shaw owns the pair used for close-up shots when Dorothy clicked her heels.
Gilbert Adrian, the chief costume designer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, created the ruby slippers for Victor Fleming’s big-screen adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s children’s novel (the magic slippers were silver in the book). Only four pairs are known to have survived. Another pair remains among the most popular attractions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, where, the museum once noted, “smudges on the heavy glass vitrine must be routinely cleaned” because of the millions who “stand transfixed before them” each year.
But as Forbes noted in 2008, Shaw’s pair “was of higher quality than the pair which now resides in the Smithsonian” because Shaw owned the pair used for close-up shots when Dorothy clicked her heels.
Shaw, a former child actor once under contract to MGM, acquired his pair from Kent Warner, a Hollywood costumer who discovered them and their siblings in an MGM warehouse shortly before the famous May 1970 auction that essentially brought down the curtain on Hollywood’s Golden Age. Shaw told The Los Angeles Times in 1988 that when Warner brought him the ruby slippers, “I was so thrilled I literally started crying. … I was just thrilled to pieces. I told him that if I never owned another possession, I’d be happy.”
Shaw eventually amassed an impressive collection of movie memories and traveled them around the country as part of a show called “Hollywood on Tour.” Shaw says that when people saw the slippers in person, “It was like they became 12 years old again.”
In 2005, the Judy Garland Museum borrowed Shaw’s “traveling pair” for its annual Judy Garland Festival and what should have been a 10-week visit. But on August 28, 2005, someone slipped into Garland’s childhood home, shattered the plexiglass case holding the slippers and stole them, leaving behind only a single red sequin. “It’s the worst nightmare for me,” Shaw said at the time, and the case quickly went cold despite a million-dollar reward.
The FBI took the slippers to the Smithsonian, where conservators compared them to the pair donated in 1979. The examination of the shoes showed that ‘their construction, materials, and wear are consistent with the pair in the museum’s collection.’
In July 2018, after Shaw and investigators feared the slippers had disappeared forever, the FBI and Grand Rapids Police Department recovered the pair during a sting operation. The FBI took the slippers to the Smithsonian, where conservators compared them to the museum’s pair donated in 1979. The FBI later said, “Examination of the recovered shoes showed that their construction, materials, and wear are consistent with the pair in the museum’s collection.”
Federal authorities unveiled Shaw’s recovered slippers during a media conference in September 2018. But it would take another five years for the public to discover who’d stolen them.
On May 16, 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Terry Martin for stealing “an object of cultural heritage” from the museum; he was also hit with one count of theft of a major artwork. Five months later, Martin pleaded guilty. Shortly before sentencing last month, Martin told the court he’d never even seen The Wizard of Oz and insisted he’d stolen the shoes only because he thought the sequins were genuine rubies. Unable to sell them on the black market, Martin said he ditched the slippers with someone who had recruited him for the job.
Although the investigation remains active, federal agents were finally able to return the ruby slippers to Shaw on February 1, after which they were presented to Heritage’s Brian Chanes, Senior Director in Hollywood & Entertainment, for safekeeping.
Brian Chanes, Heritage Auctions’ Senior Director of Hollywood & Entertainment, poses with Shaw and the ruby slippers. After an international tour, Heritage will auction the shoes in December.
“It was incredibly rewarding and fitting to see Mr. Shaw reunited with the ruby slippers at Judy Garland’s home, accompanied by his friends on the museum staff,” said Special Agent Christopher Dudley. “It is a privilege for the FBI and our Art Crime Team to work alongside law enforcement partners who truly value the importance of protecting our nation’s cultural heritage.”
Before year’s end, the shoes will once again dazzle and delight crowds around the world before stepping up to the auction block.
“This is a day that is years in the making, a real-life Hollywood ending,” Maddalena says. “It took an ensemble cast of law enforcement professionals giving the performance of a lifetime – and their coordination, cooperation and commitment restored the ruby slippers to their rightful owner. As we all look forward to the next chapter in their storied history, to their journey across the auction block, we are reminded of what these legendary objects are and what they represent: an iconic piece of our collective history, an enduring symbol of the magic of storytelling and an ever-shimmering reminder that dreams are best in Technicolor.”
ROBERT WILONSKY is a staff writer at Intelligent Collector.