A superstar departs...

Michael Jackson at a photo shoot in Los Angeles on June 12, 1971, when the future King of Pop

was 12 years old. Born into a talented family

with an ambitious father, Michael would have his childhood

stolen from him by relentless fame, musical demands, and media attention.

Aug. 29, 1958: Born at 12:13 AM as Michael Joseph Jackson in Gary, Indiana.

1962/1963: Michael becomes a member of the Jackson 5 along with his brothers Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, and Marlon. He is lead singer. Their father, Joe, is their manager.

1968: The Jackson 5 sign a contract with Motown records.

1969: The Jackson 5 have their first hit single "Want You Back." The debut single sells well over two million copies.

December 1969: Jackson 5 release their debut album Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5.

May 1970: Jackson 5 release the album ABC.

September 1970: Jackson 5 release third album Third Album.

October 1970: Jackson 5 release Jackson 5 Christmas Album. Releases his first solo single "Got To Be There."

April 1971: Jackson 5 release Maybe Tomorrow.

September 1971: Jackson 5 release Going Back to Indiana.

December 1971: Jackson 5 releases Greatest Hits.

January 1972: Michael Jackson releases his debut album Got To Be There.

February 1972: First solo number one hit to a movie entitled "Ben.

May 1972: Jackson 5 releases Lookin' Through the Glass.

August 1972: Michael Jackson releases second album Ben.

April 1973: Michael Jackon releases third album Music & Me.

May 1973: Jackson 5 releases Skywriter.

September 1973: Jackson 5 releases Getting It Together.

1974: Jackson 5 releases Dancing Machine.

January 1975: Michael Jackson releases fourth album Forever, Michael.

May 1975: Jackson 5 releases Moving Violation.

1976: The Jackson 5 change their name to The Jacksons and get their own TV show.

1978: Has movie debut as a scarecrow in The Wiz, an all-black remake of The Wizard of Oz.

August 1979: His album Off the Wall, produced by Quincy Jones, launches him to superstar standing. The album is a commercial success, to date it is certified 7x Multi-Platinum in the US and has sold 20 million copies worldwide. Off the Wall becomes the first album by a solo artist to generate four US top 10 hits.

Michael Jackson, the ballad singer, singing from the album "Off the Wall:

Also in 1979, Jackson breaks his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty surgery is not a complete success, and Jackson will continually complain of breathing difficulties. He is referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performs Jackson's second rhinoplasty and other subsequent operations.

1980: Wins a Grammy for Best Vocal Performance with "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."

1982: Releases the Thriller album which sells over fifty million copies worldwide and solidifies him as the 80s king of pop.

1983: Performs "Billy Jean" at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special. Watch this at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W02wtydfU8k&feature=related

For the first time does the moonwalk, later to become his signature move.

See his moonwalk performance here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SlWIaYkFI4

1984: During the filming of a Pepsi commercial, his hair catches fire. He has serious injuries and is rumored to have plastic surgery done. He gets his nose slightly narrowed. He also gets his star put on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1985: Co-writes "We Are the World" with Lionel Ritchie. He has another nose job and has permanent eyeliner tattooed above his eyes.

1986: Stars in Francis Ford Coppola's Captain EO.

1987: Michael Jackson releases his "Bad" album. Bad is the first, and currently only, album ever to feature five Billboard Hot 100 #1 singles

My favourite Michael Jackson song (which he co-wrote and produced) is the following, from his "Bad" album:

1988: Moves to the Neverland Valley Ranch in California's Santa Ynez Valley and begins to create a children's theme park.

Peter Pan, the fictional boy who could never leave the land of childhood, is Jackson's Disneyesque identity.

Neverland Valley Ranch

The map depicting Neverland's numerous rides, petting zoo, playgrounds, and animal reserve.

The front gate to Neverland.

Jackson frequently welcomes sick and poor children to Neverland and founds his own children's charity.

The Norman Rockwell-like welcome sign.

The ferris wheel that Jackson himself went on.

One of the fifty unique horses on the carousel.

Alice in Wonderland's clock kept real time.

1990: According to the New York Post, after numerous plastic surgeries, Jackson

now covers his facewith thick white make-up to try to hide the prosthesis that

serves as the tip of his nose. Jackson also begins to wear surgical masks in public.

1991: Jackson signs a huge recording contract with Sony Music and releases Dangerous.

1992: Jackson's relationships with children have been controversial: his sleepover parties at Neverland have received widespread critical media coverage, especially after he reveals that he sometimes slept in the same bed with several children. Jackson invites Oprah Winfrey to visit Neverland ranch and interview him there. He tells her he has a skin disorder, which is why his skin complexion has lightened. He claims that during his success as the lead singer of the Jackson Five, he had been abused by his father.

1993: Michael Jackson is accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy, and police raid his California ranch “Neverland.” Jackson announces he has become addicted to painkillers and abruptly cancels world tour to promote his album, Dangerous.

1994: Jackson reaches a settlement in 1994, later reported to be $23 million, with the family of the boy he is accused of abusing. He marries Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie.

1995: History is released.

1996: Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley divorce. Jackson marries Debbie Rowe who will be the mother of 2 of his 3 children.

1997: A son, Prince Michael I, is born.

1998: A daughter, Paris Michael, is born.

1999: Jackson and Debbie Rowe divorce, having never lived together.

2001: Inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

2002: His second son, Prince Michael II, is born.

2003: In November Jackson is served a search warrant for Neverland and arrested by the Santa Barbara County Sherriff's Department on charges of child molestation. He posts a three million dollar bail.

2005: Jackson goes on trial on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2003, as well as conspiring to abduct the boy. If convicted, he could face 20 years in jail.

The four-month trial ends in June when he was acquitted of all charges. After the trial, Michael Jackson closes the main house of Neverland and moves his family to Bahrain. Asked about his host, Prince Abdullah Hamad Alkhalifa of Bahrain, the superstar said "he is the very best, amazing, so kind."

2006: Michael Jackson closes Neverland. Although the trial ends in his acquittal, it takes a heavy toll on his health, career, and finances. The annual upkeep for Neverland is estimated to be a staggering £2million and during its heyday 54 full-time staff worked at the estate. Workers at Neverland are owed salaries.

2008: Michael Jackson is forced to give up the deed to his Neverland ranch. He has gone into default on the$24.5 million he owes on the property. The contents of Neverland are seized and put up for public auction.

Michael Jackson's replica of Sleeping Beauy's castle on display at the auction house.

Julien's auction house spends more than 2 million dollars to mount the public auction of

Jackson's belongings.

The famous white glove.

March 2009: Jackson's lawyers fight for an injunction, claiming certain items, including a carousel horse with an inscription from Elizabeth Taylor, are irreplaceable

and that Jackson had not signed the auction contract. The auction of more than

2,000 items from Michael Jackson's now-defunct Neverland ranch

scheduled for April is cancelled.

May 2009: Aerial photos show that Neverland is falling into disrepair. Jackson tries to revive his music career to pay his escalating debts (over $300 million unpaid following his 2005 court case which saw him cleared of child abuse charges). He signs a contract for a series of concerts in London. The star could earn up to $30 million for 30 live concerts.

June 26, 2009: Speculation mounted today that Michael Jackson's fatal heart attack yesterday might have been brought on by an injection of painkilling drugs

after a rehearsal at a Los Angeles arena for the star's comeback concerts.

Brain Oxman, a Jackson family lawyer and spokeman, said that Jackson had been

struggling to cope with the aftereffects of various perfromance injuries,

including a damaged vertebra, which had been interrupting rehearsals.

He accused those around Jackson of enabling him to

slip into dependency on prescription drugs and painkillers.

The stress of the damage the trials had done to his image, career, and finances no doubt also played a role in his untimely death.

Michael Jackson's "Rosebud"?

Among Michael Jackson possessions were the prop 'scissorhand' gloves that Johnny Depp wore in Edward Scissorhands. Michael Jackson endured so many facial operations over the years that his face eventually became unrecognizable from his face as a child.

For some, a Michael Jackson concert is akin to a religious experience. Watch his impressive Budapest concert here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4s16pzRYqU

June 29, 2009: The nanny who looked after Michael Jackson's three children said today the star had his stomach pumped "many times" after taking a dangerous cocktail of prescription drugs. Grace Rwaramba, 42, said : "I had to pump his stomach many times. He always mixed so much of it. There was one period that it was so bad that I didn't let the children see him ... He always ate too little and mixed too much."

Los Angeles police yesterday confirmed news reports that Jackson had become "heavily addicted" to the powerful painkiller OxyContin and had received an injection of Demerol, another opiate, an hour before his death.The nanny said she once called in Jackson's mother, Katherine, and sister, Janet, to attempt an "intervention" to persuade the singer to recognise his addiction to painkillers. But she said Jackson accused her of betraying him: "He didn't want to listen; that was one of the times he let me go."

She said the singer's lavish spending was out of control, and that he led an increasingly nomadic lifestyle, moving from country to country and hotel to hotel.

She was dismissed for a final time last December but still visited the children. When she saw them in April she claims Jackson was so broke she had to buy "happy birthday" balloons for Paris on her own credit card.

On an earlier occasion the singer had sent her to Florence to buy antiques for $1m. "We didn't even have a home to live in. So we had to put the antiques in storage," she said.

She claims she was sacked by Jackson because she was getting too close to the children but had fully expected to be reinstated soon.

She said he would regularly fire her then beg her to return as he was unable to look after the children or himself.

She told Barak: "These poor babies ... I was getting phone calls that they were being neglected. Nobody was cleaning the rooms because Michael didn't pay the housekeeper.

"I was getting calls telling me Michael was in such a bad shape. He wasn't clean. He hadn't shaved. He wasn't eating well. I used to do all this for him and they were trying to get me to go back."

One theory behind Jackson's massive drug regimen is that he was taking them to combat the stress of his forthcoming 50 shows at the O2 arena in London. The nanny said: "Fifty performances! I told him ... 'what are you doing?' He said, 'I signed only for 10.' He didn't know what he was signing. He never did."

(by David Batty guardian.co.uk, Sunday 28 June 2009 14.09 BST

The Collector

All About Yves

Yves St. Laurent Auction Sets Records


The auction was held February 23-25, 2009 at the Grand Palace, which was built for the 1900 World's Fair in Paris and is now a public exhibition hall.

7 World Records set for artists
8 Works of Art sell above €5 million
25 Works of Art sell above €1 million
3 works pre-empted by museums (Musee d’Orsay – Centre Pompidou)


Approx. 30,000 people queued for five-hour durations from six in the morning until midnight on a rainy weekend in order to see the impressive collection that was open for public viewing from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon.


The biggest sale Christie’s had ever undertaken had 1,500 clients from all over the world seated in the Grand Palais (plus 600 standing).



Display of collectibles.

"We began collecting in the early 1970s when we started making real money," said Bergé, who met Saint Laurent in 1958 and helped him open the couture house that bore his name in 1962. Some of the major items sold at auction in Paris from the collection of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge included:


Henri Matisse's oil painting, "The Cowslips, Blue and Rose Fabric" raised the highest bid at the auction, 35.9 million euros ($46.4 million). This was also a record auction price for a Matisse, whose bold-colored collages inspired some of Saint Laurent's designs. Painted in 1911, it is considered a precursor to modernism.


These two bronze fountainheads were at the centre of a dispute with China, which alleges that they were stolen. The bronzes, which disappeared from a Chinese palace in 1860, sold for 28 million euros. ($36 million).

A full room at the 20th Century Decorative Arts area sat completely silent when Eileen Gray’s Dragon's chair sold for €21,905,000 ($28,341,909). Eileen Gray's armchair in brown leather with wooden snake-shaped armrests set a record for a piece of 20th century furniture.


This modernist light ("suspension satellite") hung in the hallway outside Yves Saint Laurent’s bedroom. Designed in 1925, it shows the influence of the Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. It sold for €2,977,000 ($3,851,808)


A rare Osterode cup estimated at €100,000-150,000 sold for €853,000 ($1,103,697).


A 17th century armillary sphere supported by Chronos was estimated at €200,000–300,000. It sold for €781,000 ($1,010,501).


A series of animals in this sale that were used to decorate dining tables in princely houses were highly desired. This swan in vermeil, made in 1593 was estimated at €70,000-100,000 and sold for €301,000 ($389,451). The silver and vermeil unicorn did even better at €325,000 ($420,503).


Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi's 1914-1917 piece titled "Madame L.R.," made from rough-grained wood like stacked blocks, sold for 26 million euros ($33.3 million).


Piet Mondrian's 1922 painting "Composition in Blue, Red, Yellow and Black," with rectangles of saturated colors that inspired Saint Laurent's 1965 shift dress, sold for 19.2 million euros ($24.6 million).


"Portrait of a Man Holding a Book" by Frans Hals sold for 3,100,000 euros.


The Gericault portrait of the Dedreux children. This portrait is a good example of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé interest in atypical works of art. It sold for 8,000,000 euros. That was 2 million euros over the highest estimate.


This historic portrait box with a miniature of Louis XIV by Jean Petitot set in its crowned lid of diamonds was bought by the Louvre; thus Louis will go home again.


EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917) "Italian landscape".36.7 x 32 cm. (14½ x 12 5/8 in.) Painted in 1856-59. €457,000 ($576,129)


EDOUARD MANET (1832-1883), "Young Girl with a Summer Hat" signed 'Manet' (lower left)56 x 35 cm. (22 x 13¾ in.) Done in 1879. €721,000 ($908,948)


EDVARD MUNCH (1863-1944),"Seaside",signed and dated 'E. Munch 98' (lower left),
56 x 80.9 cm. (22 x 31¾ in.). Painted in 1898. €1,129,000 ($1,423,303)


GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963),"Composition: Midafternoon", signed 'GBraque' (on back)
41.7 x 32.6 cm. (16 3/8 x 12 7/8 in.). Painted in 1912-13. €3,201,000 ($4,035,425)


CORNELIS DE VOS (HULST 1584-1651 ANVERS),Portrait of a Lady,134 x 94,5 cm. (52¾ x 37¼ in.). €121,000 ($156,557)


THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (SUDBURY 1727-1788 LONDON) "Portrait of Giusto Ferdinando Tenducci holding a manuscript",76,6 x 64 cm. (30 x 25 in.). €2,193,000 ($2,837,426)


JEAN-AUGUSTE-DOMINIQUE INGRES (MONTAUBAN 1780-1867 PARIS) "Portrait of the Countess de La Rue" signed and dated 'Ingres in 12' (on back),29 x 23,3 cm. (11½ x 9¼ in.).€2,081,000 ($2,692,514)


DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI (LONDON 1828 - 1882 BIRCHINGTON-ON-SEA, KENT), "Study of a Pretty Heart". Signed and dated 'DGR 1866' (right centre),47,6 x 34,6 cm. (18¾ x 13 5/8 in.) Made in 1866. €121,000 ($156,557)


ERNEST BOICEAU (1881-1950). Rug with Parrots and Parakeets, about 1920. 400 x 394 cm. (157½ x 155 1/8 in.). Signed EBOICEAU on the border. €601,000 ($777,607)


Rock crystal statue representing the Infant Jesus. Italy, about 1600. Height: 12 cm. (4¾ in.). €61,000 ($77,938)


Oval agate cameo representing Perseus and Andromeda by BERNARD HILDEBRAND, 1893. Signed 'HB' in a round frame in bronzed gold. Height: 8 cm. (3¼ in.), Total height: 12 cm. (4¾ in.). €13,750 ($17,568)


Statue of Buddha in gold and red lacquered wood. Ming Dynasty, 15th century. Height: 116 cm. (45 5/8 in.). €313,000 ($399,914)


Torso of Narcissus. Marble, Roman era, 1 A.D. Height: 31.7 cm. (12½ in.). €61,000 (77,938)


Torso of an Athlete. Marble, Roman era, 1-2 A.D. Height:99 cm. (39 in.). €1,297,000 ($1,657,151)


Bronze statue of the figure Mahes. Egypt, 25-30 dynasty, 664-343 B.C. Height:23.4 cm. (9¼ in.) €49,000 ($62,606)


Minotaur. Marble, Roman, 1-2 B.C. Height:104.8 cm. (41¼ in.) €913,000 ($1,166,522)


Pierre Bergé made a gift to the Musee d’Orsay of the tapestry ‘Adoration of the Magi’ by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, which once hung in the historic Lutyens house Les Moutiers in Normandy.





Pierre Bergé (left) greets guests at his private viewing party with Moujik, his bulldog. When he saw the exhibition installation by Nathalie Criniere, he said, "It’s magic... just like a film by D.W. Griffith."






Yves Saint Laurent's art collection was acquired over five decades by the late fashion designer and his partner Pierre Berge. The collection broke several world records in a three-day "sale of the century" that amassed more than $484 million, said the organizer, Christie's.

To see all the items in St. Laurent's collection, visit http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?intSaleID=22294#action=refine&intSaleID=22294&sid=cd822bc8-dd8c-4dde-94a5-7a017720e529

Yves Saint Laurent was known for revolutionizing the haute couture tradition by introducing ready-to-wear versions of his most popular designs. The wardrobe basics he designed — pantsuit, pea coat, safari jacket, culotte skirt and tuxedo — became classics in a woman’s wardrobe.

YSL 1968


Quotes from Yves St. Laurent:

"My dream is to give the women the basis for a classic wardrobe, which, escaping the fashion of the moment, will give them greater confidence in themselves."

YSL 1960YSL 1960sYSL 1963 YSL 1960s

"Elegance is being noticed while wearing a black dress. It's being at ease. It's the attitude. It is not wrinkles or white hair that age a woman, it is her gestures."

Deneuve in YSL 1966 YSL 1966 Audrey Hepburn in YSL
YSL 1970
YSL 1980
YSL 1988 in the style of Van Gogh

"I am very alone. I exercise my imagination on the lands that I do not know. I hate traveling. For example, if I read a book about India, with photographs, or about Egypt, where I have never been, my imagination runs wild. That is how I take my most wonderful trips."




St. Laurent died in June 2008 at age 71 after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
Proceeds of the sale will be divided between the Pierre Bergé-Yves St. Laurent Foundation, created in 2002 to preserve the couturier's work, to which St. Laurent bequeathed his share of the collection, and a foundation that Bergé plans to create for the advancement of AIDS-related medical research.