A Replica of The Wizard of Oz’s Most Famous Prop Has Sold for a Fraction of a Record-Breaking Original
There is probably no single object in movie history more recognizable than Dorothy’s ruby slippers from 1939’s The Wizard of Oz. At a recent Heritage Auctions sale, a pair of the famed footwear could not come close to beating a screen-matched hat belonging to the Wicked Witch of the West. There is a reason, though.
A commemorative pair of the famous shoes sold earlier this week for $93,750, while the iconic black hat of the Wicked Witch commanded a spellbinding $550,000. The difference in price for these equally legendary props comes down to the simple provenance of them, with the huge gulf being created thanks to the slippers in this particular auction being a 50th anniversary pair and not one of the remaining pairs worn by Judy Garland in the groundbreaking movie.
The slippers are one of the Western Costume Company’s 50th Anniversary Commemorative Ruby Slippers, crafted in 1989 using Judy Garland’s original “last,” the piece of shoemaking equipment that was used to build her shoes. Western Costume had originally planned to make 500 pairs at $5,000 each, but ended the run prematurely with fewer than 25 being produced. Obviously, this is how a replica pair can still fetch around $100,000, but just to give a sense of how this compares to the real thing, an original pair of screen-worn slippers set a record in 2024 when selling for $32.5 million.
The Wicked Witch Has Her Own Place in Cinematic History
One of the headlining pieces in this auction was a screen-matched hat that Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West wore when portraying one of the most terrifying movie villains ever. Designed by MGM’s Gilbert Adrian from black wool bunting, and coming complete with the original silk scarf attached, the hat is one of only a few that have survived the best part of a century, and it has been in the same collection since an MGM studio sale in 1970. “Few treasures in Hollywood history are as instantly recognizable,” Heritage executive vice president Joe Maddalena said of the piece in an understated appraisal of the hat.
This is not the first such hat to go under the hammer in recent years, and its sale price actually makes it the cheapest of the three. A version from collector Michael Shaw, complete with its flying-scene chinstrap, sold for $2.93 million in 2024, and another example changed hands for $575,000 in December 2025. Naturally, The Wizard of Oz has always been one of cinema’s most enduring movies, and that has only been enhanced by the recent success of Wicked.
The two Oz-related props were by no means the only big items to have turned up as part of this entertainment memorabilia auction, with other items including Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber from The Empire Strikes Back and Gene Wilder’s hat from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The one thing that all of these items and several others have in common is that they were all screen-used, and that is something that can send auction bids sky high and then some.
While there is quite a contrast between the prices of the commemorative ruby slippers and the Wicked Witch’s hat, the sales prove that the worth of an item is never just about one aspect of it. Screen-worn items will always be the holy grail of movie memorabilia, but even replicas can sell for near-six-figure sums when they come up at auction. Even items that were never worn by an actor can still command such prices based on the movie they are linked to, sometimes created half a century after the film was made.
