Thursday, April 08, 2010

Portrait of the King of Pop on eBay


“The Book,” a 50-by-40-inch painting of Michael Jackson, went up for auction on eBay last night. The portrait, by Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong, is supposedly the only painting for which Michael Jackson posed.

“With the positive response to his music and the movie about him after his death, we thought it was a good time to sell it and for the world to see it,” said Marty Abrams, owner of the painting since 1992.

The portrait features Jackson in a red jacket holding his journal at Neverland Ranch, with Tinkerbell in the background. Abrams kept the painting either in his home in New York or in storage with the exception of one display at the Dancy-Power Automotive showroom in Harlem after Jackson’s death. Japanese businessman Hiromichi Saeki originally bought the painting for $2.1 million in 1990. Belgo Fine Art Appraisal and Restoration appraised the painting at $5.3 million in 2000.

Abrams hopes the portrait will get to over $3 million on eBay. The minimum starting bid was posted at $2.75 million and has not changed as of right now (Thursday afternoon). Click here to keep track of the auction or to look at more photos—or even to bid on the painting, if you have some spare cash. The auction closes on April 17.

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