Darren Julien’s Q & A’s

Artwork: Chris Sardinas

Since the announcement of the Tompkins & Bush memorabilia auction in November, Julien’s Auctions and Michael Bush have been the subjects of controversy and criticism among numerous members of the Michael Jackson fan community. The battle centers on the legitimacy of several autographed items from the collection of Michael Bush, recently sold in the auction that took place on December 2nd.

Darren Julien, CEO of Julien’s Auctions, contacted MJJ on December 12th and requested that we interview him to give him the opportunity to respond “on the record” to the accusations targeting his auction house and Michael Bush. For this exclusive interview, we allowed our members to submit questions for Julien up through December 18th, and then we compiled them and sent them to him on December 19th. On January 7th, he sent us his responses, which we publish below in their entirety. It is clearly the most extensive and in depth discourse that Julien has provided on this controversy to date.

MJJ: Briefly describe the due diligence involved in authenticating a memorabilia item, especially in those cases where it does not directly come from the celebrity/subject (as is the case for all items pertaining to Michael Jackson). Were each of these measures used in validating the provenance of each of the Tompkins & Bush auction items?

DJ: Like any collection, whether they come directly from a celebrity, an estate, or, in this case, someone who was known for having a close relationship with and direct access to the celebrity, we engage in a thorough diligence process to attempt to authenticate the provenance of the auction items. Among other things, if the item was worn for a public event, we will review videos, archival footage, photographs, or other pictorial records of the item and compare them to the item itself. If the item involves a signature or handwriting, we engage in similar comparisons with known samples of the person’s signature and handwriting. With respect to Michael Jackson, we also have such signatures and handwriting reviewed by someone considered to be the foremost expert on Michael Jackson memorabilia, Laura Woolley from The Collectors Lab. Ms. Woolley has seen and authenticated more Michael Jackson signatures and handwriting than possibly anyone else in the industry. Ms. Woolley has worked with all of the top auction houses when it comes to items of Michael Jackson including Bonham’s, Heritage, and she is regularly consulted and engaged by Sotheby’s and Christies. Finally, as with all auction houses, we rely upon the representations made by the consignors when they consign items to us for sale.

MJJ: These next questions pertain to Lot #648 in your recent Tompkins & Bush auction, being a black cashmere hussars jacket which Michael Jackson wore to the White House in 1990 (apparently bought by “Lady Gaga” for $144,000). When looking at this page in your auction catalog, there appears to be a couple of noticeable differences between the jacket worn on that day and the one sold in your listing. For one, the collar in the listing has two black metal crowns over red fabric in the front portion, whereas the one in the White House photo is all black. Secondly, the jacket in The White House photo has silver behind the braids in the front of the jacket (whereas the one in the listing does not) and the buttons between the two jackets appear to be slightly different as well. Thirdly, the jacket in The White House photos seems to clearly include 14 buttons, where the one sold in the auction listing appears to have 18 buttons (also see this photo taken at The White House for comparison). How do you explain these differences?

DJ: We are thankful to the fans for bringing this issue to our attention. As you noted, the two jackets are nearly identical. The only differences appear to be the color of the crowns on the collar and the buttons down the front of the jacket. The pendant is not a permanent fixture on either jacket. It is an accessory that could and was removed and worn with various articles of clothing. The jacket with the silver crowns on the collar was worn by Michael Jackson to the White House. The one with the red crowns on the collar was worn by Michael Jackson during his famous “kiss” with Lisa Marie Presley at the 1994 MTV VMAs. Neither of them are replicas of any jacket worn by Michael Jackson. They were both indisputably worn by Michael Jackson. You will note that the picture of Michael Jackson in the “silver crown” jacket and the picture of Michael Jackson in the “red crown” jacket were both included in our catalog for the auction. There were over 500 items included in the auction held on December 2, 2012. No matter how much precaution we take and diligence we conduct, the people putting together the auction and the catalogs are, after all, human beings and prone to making a mistake. We are currently looking into this matter but it appears that the jacket was likely misidentified as the one worn at the White House when it was the one worn at the VMAs. Ironically the fact it was part of the famous “kiss” it means it’s worth more money than just worn to the White House. Mistakes like these, which are completely inadvertent, happen as a regular course in the auction industry. And, as with our usual custom and practice, we have alerted the buyer of the potential error. In any event, the jacket that was sold in the auction was a genuine article worn by Michael Jackson.

MJJ: Could it be that the jacket in your auction listing is a near exact replica of the actual jacket worn by MJ at The White House on 4/5/90? Did Michael Bush tell you anything that would lead you to believe that the jacket he consigned in this auction could have been any other than the actual one worn on 4/5/90?