Five Of The Most Expensive Michael Jackson Pieces

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 5th 2011 at 11:01AM

It could definitely be argued that the most expensive item associated with Michael Jackson hasn't sold yet. Plenty of items tied to his career and his life remain off the market as his family continues to sort out the complicated legacy the singer left behind. In the end, it may turn out that the California real estate associated with him including Neverland Ranch or the home he was renting at the time of his death could be the most expensive Michael Jackson collectibles (depending of course on how you stretch that term).

Jackson's role in the collectible world is a complicated one. There are hundreds of Michael Jackson collectibles on the market at any given moment. Items associated with him and his career have value but also to be considered are the pieces that he inspired. Jackson was a muse for some of the world's top selling artists. In my research on the many associated Michael Jackson collectibles on the market I found that the most valuable pieces are mostly the works he inspired. This isn't a comprehensive list but it gives a look at some of the most expensive pieces associated with Jackson.

The golden sculpture shown above by artist Jeff Koons is one of the most famous pieces of Michael Jackson inspired art. There are four of these statues, the artist proof is in the Broad collection, one is at the The Dakis Joannou Collection Foundation in Athens and another at the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art. The one shown above sold at Sothebys in 2001 for $5,615,750 some say it could easily bring at least twice that today.

It doesn't look much like Michael Jackson but the piece above, Michael Jackson Fucked Up (Big Head) by Paul McCarthy is a riff on the earlier work by Jeff Koons, of Michael Jackson holding his pet chimpanzee Bubbles. The bronze statue with the oversized head sold for $2,210,500 at Christie's in 2008. More recently at Art Basel Miami Beach, a Jackson-themed piece from McCarthy's White Snow series sold for $450,000.

Andy Warhol executed a small series of portraits of Michael Jackson in the 1980s, one of which was used as a cover for Time magazine and is now in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Jackson was featured on the cover of Warhol's own Interview magazine. This piece executed in 1984 sold at Christies in 2009 for $812,500. A similar piece sold at Sotheby's in 2009 for $278,500.

There are plenty of Michael Jackson collectibles on the market. Jackson collected thousands of objects during his life, so much so that shortly before his death he had planned to auction off many of his possessions from furniture to costumes but later changed his mind and canceled the multi-day event. The pieces that sell for the most money are the ones most associated with Jackson's glory days. Last year on the first anniversary of Michael Jackson's death one of the crystal-encrusted gloves the King of Pop wore during the1984 "Victory Tour" sold for $192,000 at the Julien's Auctions at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas but the glove shown above, brought in a total of $420,000 at a different Julien's Auctions event in 2009. Other items that have sold well include costumes used during Michael Jackson's tours and some of the fedoras he wore on stage.

Perhaps my favorite on the list is the portrait by artist Kehinde Wiley that Michael Jackson himself commissioned before his death. Jackson had a love of portraits of himself. This work, titled Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II, sold at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2009 for $175,000.

Tags: jeff koons, kehinde wiley, michael jackson

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

cawobeth Mar 5th 2011 3:26PM

These articles are all very interesting. Thank you for this.
Only thing I wonder is what this videos has to do with the feature(s) of the article.
Why would you not have a video that shows more about MJ's former home where these items once were ?
The video that you chose to use spans a period of time which fails to show significant facts, such as MJ & his children had moved somewhere else, after Behrain, prior to returning to the US.

The other aspect that I don't care for is that much of the video echos unnecessary aspects of his life that should not be considered part of his legacy. The video disrespectfully repeats unfair and perverse sensationalism over Mr. Jackson.

So, in the future, it would be appreciated by many who admire MJ the artist and humanitarian, if you would respectfully display a review of him which is more true to who he proved to be rather than repeat media's take on him.

johnbright222 Mar 6th 2011 6:26AM

Have you seen the solid silver sculpture of King Michael by sculptor Billa Dhand?
Its an amazing work of art and a true masterpiece. You can see at www.billadhand.com