Millions for memorabilia

Iconic movie memorabilia can command staggering prices, like Judy Garland's slippers recently

Last week, Dorothy's 'ruby slippers' sold at US-based Heritage Auctions, the fine art and collectibles auction house, for a price somewhere over the rainbow: $28 million. One of four surviving pairs worn by American actor Judy Garland in the 1939 film titled The Wizard of Oz, these slippers are now the most famous, and by far the most valuable, movie memorabilia ever sold at auction.

This pair was famously stolen from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, in the summer of 2005 and was recovered 13 years later by the FBI, only to return to owner Michael Shaw earlier this year before he handed them over to Heritage for inclusion in the auction, which drew more than 1,800 bidders worldwide. "There is simply no comparison between Judy Garland's Ruby Slippers and any other piece of Hollywood memorabilia," said Joe Maddalena, executive vice-president, Heritage Auctions, in a press statement.