ANN CURRY, co-host:
Back now at 8:35. It's been two and a half years since the death of
Michael Jackson
and now all of the items from the home where
Jackson
spent his final days are hitting the
auction
block. We're going to have a preview in just moment. But first, a short tour of the multimillion-dollar mansion. It's a mansion fit for a king and the
King of Pop
handpicked this six bedroom estate in the heart of
Los Angeles
using its sitting rooms and fully functional movie theater as his personal sanctuary while he rehearsed for his comeback "
This Is It
" tour. But it's the furnishings that
Michael Jackson
used, some personalized by the singer, that will get the most attention at the
auction
, including an antique armoire where he
wrote
a motivating message to himself. "Train, perfection March, April, full out May." As we mentioned those items and hundreds more are now about to hit the
auction
block and
Darren Julien
and
Martin Nolan
are from
Julien
's
auction house
. Guys, good morning.
Mr. DARREN JULIEN:
Good morning,
Ann.
Mr. MARTIN NOLAN:
Good morning.
CURRY:
You have experience auctioning off
Michael Jackson
's things before.
Mr. JULIEN:
Mm-hmm.
CURRY:
But this one seems to be a little different. He didn't actually own any of these things, they're from the house where he spent his final, final days. Do you expect that viewers will have as much interest in items that he actually never owned himself?
Mr. JULIEN:
Very much so. Because it's very much like when we sold the house of -- the contents of
Brentwood
where
Marilyn Monroe
passed away.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. JULIEN:
Those items were owned by a lady that bought the house afterwards, we sold them for record prices. And remember these are -- these are items that surrounded
Michael
and his family the last year of their lives together.
CURRY:
Exactly. Which kind of brings another point,
Martin
. I mean there is a kind of morbid nature to this. I mean we just heard about the end of the trial not so long ago. These are actually things that really were connected to him as he was struggling.
Mr. NOLAN:
Right.
CURRY:
According to everything we've learned.
Mr. NOLAN:
Very much. But there's still a demand for his items.
CURRY:
Yeah.
Mr. NOLAN:
There's a love affair with
Michael Jackson
all over the world, from
China
,
Japan
, everywhere in the world people desperately want something. They're very nostalgic, they want his -- a memory.
Michael
is gone, they want to cling on to something tangible.
CURRY:
So now the owners of the home that where he rented are selling this.
Mr. JULIEN:
Mm-hmm.
CURRY:
Putting them on
auction
and they would benefit from this
auction
. And one of things comes from this armoire that we heard about.
Mr. JULIEN:
Mm-hmm.
CURRY:
You couldn't bring the whole armoire, it's very large.
Mr. JULIEN:
That's right
, we brought the door.
CURRY:
But you brought the door.
Mr. JULIEN:
Mm-hmm.
CURRY:
But you brought the door, the mirror where he
wrote
these words.
Mr. JULIEN:
Yep.
CURRY:
Train, perfection, March, April, full out M.
Mr. JULIEN:
May, yep.
CURRY:
Oh, that says May.
Mr. JULIEN:
May, yeah.
CURRY:
And then there's there a little drawing.
Mr. JULIEN:
Yeah, and mirrors typically when we sell a celebrity mirror they do very well. Because
Michael
would have stood in front of the mirror, he
wrote
that and would have seen himself. So, this as an armoire we estimate 6 to 8,000 but again because it was associated with
Michael Jackson
we anticipate that it will sell for a lot more.
CURRY:
And this also, this bench.
Mr. JULIEN:
Mm-hmm.
CURRY:
This was owned, as I said, by the owner of the house.
Mr. JULIEN:
Yeah.
CURRY:
But
Michael Jackson
actually
wrote
on it?
Mr. JULIEN:
Yeah, that's right. And we know from clearing out
Neverland
,
Michael
hired us in
2008
to clear out
Neverland
.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. JULIEN:
And we noticed that he
wrote
on a lot of furniture.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. JULIEN:
And he was also knows for doing this when he would rent a
hotel room
. And he would write on the mirrors, write on the furniture. So this was in his private quarters.
CURRY:
Stick figures.
Mr. JULIEN:
Yeah, stick figures. It looks like somebody's dancing.
CURRY:
Hm.
Mr. JULIEN:
But this something that was in the shower.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm. And this other item here, this almost seems like something you wish that the children would keep because according to what we understand one of the children
wrote
on this.
Mr. NOLAN:
Exactly.
CURRY:
A message to her -- her or his father.
Mr. NOLAN:
Exactly, because it was a home, he was a daddy, he had children, they was in -- living among beautiful items. They
wrote
this very nostalgic note. It's a really amazing piece, very sought after.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. NOLAN:
And the kids have all the memories and probably numerous other items that they have
wrote
to their dad.
CURRY:
It says sort of, "love daddy, I heart daddy, smile, it's for free."
Mr. NOLAN:
And it's so true,
Ann.
We can all smile, it's for free.
CURRY:
Yeah.
Mr. NOLAN:
It's a wonderful message.
CURRY:
This candle, you know, you look at it, it doesn't look like it would be worth, the candle itself.
Mr. NOLAN:
It's just...
CURRY:
But Prince
wrote
something on it and as a result it's one of the children.
Mr. NOLAN:
It did. He had carved his named into the candle. Typical child growing up in a house, he carved his name.
CURRY:
And how much did that increase the value?
Mr. NOLAN:
Significantly. Again it's unknown.
CURRY:
Hm.
Mr. NOLAN:
We will know at the
auction
on December, 17th. But again it's something that's typically family home. And that's what we're trying to show people.
Michael
lived in a beautiful home with his children, normal kids growing up and this is a part of the memory of that.
CURRY:
You know, I think one of the most sobering sort of things that you have here are some of the chairs that were in what was, kind of called the medication room.
And I
'm wondering who would -- and some of these apparently have -- still have a little of the makeup on it on the chairs that
Michael
wore?
Mr. NOLAN:
Some of the chairs. Remember there's over 600 items in the sale and we're actually doing an amazing exhibition,
Ann.
We're going to recreate the home...
CURRY:
Mm.
Mr. NOLAN:
...in our gallery in
Beverly Hills
starting on
December 12th
, designed by
WRJ Design Associates
. So people that didn't get a chance to see the home would come to our exhibition and actually walk through the rooms like as if it was in the home in
Carolwood
.
CURRY:
Do you expect any bidders who might actually be a part of any kind of museum or some of kind historical kind of site that they may want to create? Because that would seem to be something where this should probably go.
Mr. NOLAN:
Absolutely. But again, it's beautiful furniture, intrinsic value by themselves, you know, probably 350 to 550 for the five chairs. This also comes with a couch so it's
1500
to
1800
is the value. So really not very highly priced but again the
Michael Jackson
factor is unknown.
CURRY:
All right,
Darren Julien
and
Martin Nolan
,
thank you so much
.
Mr. NOLAN:
Thank you,
Ann.
CURRY:
And we want to mention the
auction
takes place in
Beverly Hills
on
December 17th
. And coming up next we've got
Michelle Pfeiffer
and
Zac Efron
live in our studio. Have I mentioned that, we love them. But first, these messages.
