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The Thriller Is Gone

Editors Note: Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest on June 25. At the time of his death, his debt was estimated to be $500 million. To help settle some of his money problems, Jackson initially agreed to allow an auction of most of the contents of his beloved Neverland Ranch. This story, originally published on March 18, detailed plans for the auction. Less than a month later, on April 14, the auction was canceled after Jackson's representatives and the auction house handling the sale reached an agreement to return the items. Jackson's camp suggested at the time a museum might be in the works.
Michael Jackson gloves

Michael Jackson wears tube socks. You can have them.

The King of Pop’s 28-year-old acrylic, rhinestone-­encrusted footwear intimates are known in auctionspeak as “signature pieces.” They make up item No. 7576 in this month’s auction of all sorts of things that found their way onto Neverland Ranch before Jackson abandoned the place in 2005. The catalog’s “low estimate”: $600 for the pair.

Or maybe you want to spend your $600—assuming no one bids over the low estimate—on a carved rocking horse inscribed TO MJ. LOVE ET. That would be Elizabeth Taylor. ( View a slideshow featuring some of Jackson's items.)

Another fan of Jackson’s was apparently President Reagan, who sent him a letter on White House stationery in 1984 that begins, “Dear Michael, I was pleased to learn that you were not seriously hurt in your recent accident.” It’s dated five days after Jackson’s hair caught fire while he was filming a Pepsi ad. Low estimate: $400. (Cheaper than tube socks!)

Jackson left Neverland after being acquitted of child-­molestation charges and has piled up more than $24 million in debt. The 2,800-acre property, now co-owned by Jackson and private equity firm Colony Capital LLC, has been renamed Sycamore Valley Ranch. It’s unclear what the owners plan to do with it; the auction proceeds, less the auction house’s commission, will go to Jackson and a music charity.

For the hardcore, recession-proof groupie, the auction could provide a once-in-a-lifetime chance to snag the monumental Neverland front gates, complete with a red-and-gold crown and gilded MICHAEL JACKSON banner. The low estimate for this architectural wonder is $20,000. But the auction house will take whatever it can get.

Clearly, Jackson likes life-size figures more than most people do. See Item No. 4322 (a life-size fiberglass butler, complete with tray), No. 4385 (a life-size security guard with a museum guard patch on its uniform), No. 5086 (a life-size rubber ­policeman with a uniform, a name tag that reads nick, and an LAPD hat), and No. 5135 (a life-size sculpture of a woman in a pink bathrobe, with glasses, her hair in curlers, and “holding a bath loofah and a copy of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus”). Low estimate for the bathrobe lady? Same as for the Reagan letter: $400.

“With somebody like Michael Jackson, there is no such thing as a reject pile,” says Darren Julien of Julien’s Auctions, which will run the sale, in Beverly Hills, from April 22 to 25.

But what about a certain item that the catalog calls “one of the most recognized pieces of wardrobe in the history of popular culture”? Yes, the Gloved One’s white crystal glove is also up for grabs. Low estimate: $10,000.


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