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Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers Recovered After 13 Years
- What: A pair of original ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz was stolen from the Judy Garland Museum, recovered by the FBI after 13 years, and later tied to a Minnesota theft case.
- Where: Judy Garland Museum, Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
- When: The slippers were stolen in 2005 and recovered in 2018; federal charges were announced in 2023.
In 2005, one of the most recognizable pieces of movie memorabilia in America disappeared from a small museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. The stolen item was a pair of original ruby slippers worn in The Wizard of Oz, on loan to the Judy Garland Museum.
The theft was simple and damaging. Someone broke into the museum, smashed the display case, and took the slippers. For years, the case sat somewhere between local crime and Hollywood legend. These were not just old shoes from a classic film. They were part of a tiny surviving group of slippers made for the 1939 movie, and their cultural value far exceeded their original materials.
FBI Recovery of the Slippers
What made the theft especially notable was how long the mystery lasted. The ruby slippers were gone for 13 years. Then, in 2018, the FBI announced they had recovered them after an undercover operation. The recovery turned a long-cold museum theft into a major federal case and renewed attention on how vulnerable famous artifacts can be when they sit outside the biggest institutions.
In 2023, federal prosecutors said a Minnesota man had admitted to stealing the slippers years earlier after being told they were insured for a large amount and allegedly believed they contained real jewels. The slippers themselves did not. The sequins and beading created the illusion that made them famous on screen, but the item’s true value was historical, not material. Another man was later charged in connection with allegedly trying to help conceal the stolen slippers after the theft.
Judy Garland Museum Theft Case
The case matters partly because of where it happened. The Judy Garland Museum is not in Hollywood or New York. It is in Garland’s hometown in northern Minnesota. That contrast helped make the story linger: one of American cinema’s best-known objects vanished not from a fortress-like archive, but from a regional museum built around local history and film memory.
The recovery did not erase the damage, but it changed the ending. A prop tied to one of the most studied and loved films in American culture was no longer just a missing legend. After 13 years, the ruby slippers from Grand Rapids became physical evidence again, recovered by the FBI and returned to the center of one of Hollywood’s most notorious museum thefts.
Did You Know?
The slippers recovered by the FBI were later widely described as being used for close-up shots in the 1939 film.