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NBC News Investigates Julien's Auction's Michael Jackson Autograph Scandal

NBC News Los Angeles aired an investigative report on Julien's Auction's Tompkins & Bush Michael Jackson sale on Tuesday, Dec. 18's 11:00 News. Watch the report and read the accompanying article on NBC Los Angeles's website.

Julien's held the Tompkins & Bush Michael Jackson auction on December 2, but outrage has flooded Michael Jackson fan sites and the world of rock autographs since mid-November, as fans, dealers and collectors alike told Julien's CEO, Darren Julien, that almost all of the autographs in the sale were obvious forgeries.

The pleas to cancel the sale fell on deaf ears. All 290 lots of autographs were sold for a total of almost $1.5 million. The only autograph in the sale commonly believed to be genuine brought $896.

A discussion on this site about it, Michael Jackson Signing Styles in Julien's Tompkins and Bush Sale, was started on November 19. At 153 pages to date it is the longest discussion in the history of Autograph Magazine Live. Scores of suspected forgeries from the sale have been analyzed in the discussion. The consensus is that the most of the autographs were likely forged by the consignor, Jackson's long-time friend and costume designer, Michael Bush. The autographs have many of Bush's handwriting characteristics.

Julien's filed a copyright infringement claim against Autograph Magazine Live on December 13. On Dec. 17, our website company removed all the images Julien's claimed violated their copyright from this site pending our response and any further actions Julien's may take. We are legally allowed to use the images under Fair Use laws, and will file our counterclaim this week.

We will have uncontested images of autographs from the auction up starting tomorrow.

UPDATE: According to NBC, Darren Julien said that any client who questions the authenticity of the Michael Jackson autographs they bought in the Tompkins & Bush auction can return them for a refund. If Julien's will cover shipping both ways, that's the best news possible.

Tags: Julien's, michael jackson, nbc, tompkins and bush

7 members like this

Comment by Michelle on December 25, 2012 at 5:29pm: Hello Donald,

Did you have both of those companies physically evaluate the signatures, or did they do a visual from photos? I would contact Juliens and give them time to response, but know that you can also follow up with NBC4's Joel Grover, the Los Angeles Consumer Affairs office and the FBI to get action on your refund. Good luck!

Comment by TeamMichael777 on December 25, 2012 at 10:46pm: Hi Donald i sent you an email dont know if you got it, please email me at Manager@Teammichaeljackson.com so we can discuss this in private. Hope you had a festive day,

Comment by Donald Thomas on December 26, 2012 at 7:25am: I plan to conduct this matter in private from this point forward. I will share the final outcome once this problem is fully addressed. A correction to my previous post, I contacted Juliens last 'week' sharing my corcerns (via email) and to this point no response...Thanks, Don

Comment by Donald Thomas on December 26, 2012 at 7:40am: TeamMicheal777,

Please look for a email from me in your inbox...Thanks, Don

Comment by just some dude on December 26, 2012 at 5:27pm: Roger, the good news is that the work you and Steve are doing on this site and on this case just goes to show that there are "good guys" out there! I'm convinced that when all is said and done, this community, and you and Steve will be vindicated. My "snicker" comment was more or less reflecting on the skirmish I had with DB a while back. I believe I had said that Julien's credibility would be taking a major hit and his response was something along the lines of Julien's reputation was fail-proof or some such nonsense. Well, the cat is out of the bag and anybody on this forum who takes time to read about this will certainly need to reconsider how much faith to put in Julien's.

Keep up the great work and thanks for all the work you guys do on this site!

And to the MJ Army - you guys are awesome. Your devotion to the legacy of the man is amazing!!

Comment by Wendy Christine on December 26, 2012 at 7:50pm: I'm sorry this is still going on for you, Don. Please hang in there and I am happy to see you are in contact with TeamMichael. Regards, Wendy

Comment by TeamMichael777 on December 28, 2012 at 1:01am: Jessica, Roger is the expert he has the last shout, if i feel there are discrepancies i will point them out to him, make other samples are available to him, the final say is always his, i am no expert this is why i suggested you post here to get lots of feedback, im glad you are comfortable with the findings, tke care

Comment by Jessica on December 28, 2012 at 8:08am: Yeah. I did a quick analysis on Rogers's website, and he said it looks good. Everyone else that has commented has said it is good as well like Steve, etc. No one has ever said anything about it being suspicious, and I have posted it on here several times over the years since I purchased it. If Roger says it is good, I feel good. :)