CHINA> Taiwan, HK, Macao
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CHINA> Taiwan, HK, Macao
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MJ glove has Macao hotelier moonwalking
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-23 07:26 HONG KONG: For a whopping $420,000, Michael Jackson's rhinestone-encrusted glove is coming to a hotel in the glitzy Asian gambling haven of Macao. Hoffman Ma, deputy chief executive of the Ponte 16 gaming resort, made the winning bid of $350,000 at an auction in New York on the hotel's behalf. With commission included, the glove cost $420,000 in total, hotel spokeswoman Jennie Yeung said.
Jackson wore the sparkling glove when he performed his first "moonwalk" dance in 1983. The auction on Saturday featured more than 70 items from the late pop icon's career. Legendary gambling tycoon Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Jogos de Macau owns half of the five-star hotel, which will open a gallery early next year to showcase the glove and nine other Jackson items from the auction, Yeung said. Among the items were a pair of sequin-encrusted socks, portraits of Charlie Chaplin drawn by Jackson as a child, and a shirt he wore in his iconic Thriller video. Macao is the only city on Chinese soil to allow casino gambling. The decision to buy Jackson memorabilia had been discussed by Ponte 16's senior executives for several months, Yeung said. "Michael Jackson is a legendary entertainer and so it was very important to buy some of his collectables," she said. In a statement, Ma said: "We aim to create a 'Rendezvous' to reminisce this great performer of the 20th century."
"It was a fairly good discount," he said. During the auction, the price of the glove was increasing rapidly with fans roaring and squealing - similar to the kind of frenzy that accompanied the late pop star when he toured the world. The glove was the top item in a collection of Jackson memorabilia on the block at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. Its pre-auction estimate was $40,000 to $60,000. But with Jackson mania surging five months after his death, frenzied bidders from around the world and in New York sent the price rocketing. The pop icon, who died June 25 at 50, had given the glove to Walter "Clyde" Orange, of the singing group the Commodores. A jacket that Jackson wore on his 1989 Bad tour fetched $225,000 - 20 times its estimate of $8,000. The sale, held by Los Angeles-based Julien's Auctions, also included a fedora Jackson wore for the moonwalk. It sold for $22,000 against a $2,000 high estimate. New Yorker Linda Derogene said she was willing to spend up to $5,000 for a material link to the performer she's idolized all her life, but never got a chance to see in concert.
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