In the wake of the death of Michael Jackson last Thursday, and the coincidental (long-scheduled) “Summer Sale” of original entertainment memorabilia which took place in Las Vegas over the following two days, the sale of 21 lots of Jackson-related memorabilia with provenance identified as from “The Collection of David Gest” has prompted significant mainstream media coverage as well as a threat of lawsuit by Mr. Gest.
As OPB readers will remember, an entirely unrelated legal battle took place between Michael Jackson’s MJJ Productions and Julien’s Auction over the massive sale of personal memorabilia owned by Jackson from his Neverland Ranch and consigned to the auction house for a dedicated event. As reported, the auction which would have taken place in April 2009 was canceled and the dispute settled out of court.
- See Past OPB Coverage: Michael Jackson v. Julien’s Auctions
Following this weekend’s Julien’s Auctions “Summer Sale” event, including 21 Michael Jackson lots (out of more than 900) which were unrelated to the canceled “The Collection of Michael Jackson” event, mainstream media outlets published a number of articles and news reports on television, in print, and online referencing the sale. Many focused on the collectible and “investment” potential of such pieces, and remarked on the estimate versus actual values realized in the sale.
In that each of the lots included the line “PROVENANCE The Collection of David Gest“, some in the media interpreted this to mean that Gest was the actual consignor to the auction, and perhaps those entirely unfamiliar with auction houses and how these events work may have believed that is was offered for sale as a direct consequence of the passing of the pop star to capitalize on the tragic event.
Today, The Sun in the UK published an interview with David Gest,with his reaction to the death of his close personal friend, Michael Jackson:
- See The Sun: ‘Michael told me he was excited to get back on stage … but the stress of those concerts killed him’
Though not at all the focus of the feature, The Sun published Mr. Gest’s reaction to the auction event as well as a statement from Julien’s Auctions:
But at the same time as the texts flooded in expressing grief for the star, Hollywood-based Julien’s Auction House was organising a sale of Jackson memorabilia. It was advertised as being from David Gest’s collection and took place the day after his death at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Furious David said: “I never consigned any of these items to Julien’s Auction House in LA. I have instructed my legal representatives Sheridans solicitors to sue the auction house and let buyers know this was not my auction.
“I think it is terrible that the auction house would carry out a sale of items belonging to a man who had not been buried yet. Even if I once owned any of these items this should not have been misleadingly portrayed as my personal auction to the Press and buyers. I received no money from this sale.”
Last night Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions, said: “The items were consigned to us by a third party who got them from David Gest at some time in the past. This is an auction that we had planned back from the spring. When we heard Michael had passed away we did toy with the idea of pulling the 21 items but this was an important part of history and we decided to go on.”
This aspect of the story has been picked up by a few other news outlets (see the Original Prop Blog’s Official Twitter Feed for links to additional coverage).
While I am personally a very strong proponent of auction houses including information about the provenance and source of pieces offered in their sales (in this case noting that the pieces were from the collection of David Gest), I believe that these unusual circumstances illustrate that proving some information – but not the entire story and full disclosure and details – can also prove to be problematic for all parties involved. If it was also disclosed that the peices were consigned by a third party, and not Mr. Gest directly, it would likely have mitgated the conflict to some degree.
Unfortunately, the listing of comprehensive details and chain of ownership with substantive transparency is rare and case by case, not a practice employed by any auction house outside of direct ‘studio reseller’ style events.
In any event, while the way in which the Jackson lots were ascribed to Gest was vague, Gest did not appear to dispute prior ownership of the pieces. It will be interesting to see if this development is ultimately nothing more than a one day news story with no further consequences.
The Michael Jackson items sold can be found on LiveAuctioneers.com (which appears to have been used in supplement to Julien’s Auctions new Julien’ s Live service), Lots #315-335:
- See LiveAuctioneers.com: Julien’s Auction “Summer Sale”
Jason DeBord