A photo made Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 shows the bedroom at the Carolwood Drive home where singer Michael Jackson passed away in 2009, in Beverly Hills, California. Photo / AP
The bed where Michael Jackson took his last breath is up for sale.
The queen-size piece is among hundreds of items from the Holmby Hills mansion where Jackson spent his final days that are set to hit the auction block next month.
"We want to preserve the history of these items," said celebrity auctioneer Darren Julien, president of Julien's Auctions, which will sell the various antique furnishings, paintings and sculptures that surrounded the King of Pop as he prepared for a series of comeback concerts.
The North Carolwood Drive home where Jackson lived with his three children from December 2008 until his death on June 25, 2009, is separately up for sale.
The house and its furnishings were leased to Jackson while he and his family lived there.
A note from one of the children remains on a blackboard inside the home's sprawling kitchen, where three barstools were lined up against the centre island - a perfect breakfast spot for the kids.
"I (heart) Daddy. SMILE, it's for free," the chalk note reads in childlike scrawl. The blackboard will be sold as-is, and is expected to fetch more than $400.
At the very moment on Monday that Dr Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death, reporters were taking a private preview tour of the three-story home where the pop star lived and died.
The bedroom shown in evidence photos at Murray's criminal trial was actually considered a "medication room" by the Jackson team. Murray was found guilty of supplying an insomnia-plagued Jackson with the powerful operating-room anaesthetic propofol to help him sleep as he rehearsed for his comeback.
Jackson maintained an adjacent bedroom that he regarded as his inner sanctum - a private place only for him.
It is in this second bedroom that the pop star wrote a message to himself on the mirror of an antique armoire. "TRAIN, perfection, March April. FULL OUT May," it reads. Jackson was to begin his London concert run in July.
His private bedroom included a bathroom larger than most living rooms and two massive walk-in wardrobes.
Among the items for sale in the medication room, where evidence was collected for Murray's trial, are upholstered chairs smudged with Jackson's makeup and Jackson's death bed, which looks out to an expansive backyard surrounded by tall trees. The yard is anchored by a large swimming pool and a pool house, where the singer's son Prince carved his name on a beeswax candle.
The medication room, on the top floor, leads to another walk-in wardrobe and bathroom, where Jackson's makeup still remains on a small silk-covered stool beneath the vanity.
Curving staircases on each side of the mansion's most famous room lead down to the kitchen and the elegant foyer, where a grand piano sits topped with crystal candlesticks.
The home and its decor are reminiscent of Neverland Ranch, Jackson's famous estate near Santa Barbara, said Martin J Nolan, executive director of Julien's Auctions.
"He loved it because it was like Neverland," Nolan said.
"It was a very happy place where he spent his final days."
Julien's Auctions sold collectables from the Neverland Ranch in April of 2009.
Like Neverland, the Carolwood house features its own movie theatre - this one outfitted entirely in burgundy velvet with loveseat-style sofas and a fresco of a cloud-dotted sky on the ceiling.
Katherine Jackson's lawyer, Perry Sanders Jr., said he is aware of the Carolwood auction and has "done everything we can to ascertain that items from this address are not being auctioned using Michael's name and likeness to enhance the items' value."
Celebrity home tours still regularly pass by the property. On the day of Murray's conviction, a tour guide could be heard telling passengers, "This is the home of Michael Jackson, where he passed away."
- AP
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