Neverland Ranch

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The station building at Neverland Ranch
Southern area of ​​Neverland Ranch

The Neverland Ranch (today again after the original name Sycamore Valley Ranch ), in the Santa Ynez Valley in California , was the private estate of the American pop star Michael Jackson, who died in 2009 . The property, which cost around 17 million US dollars at the time of acquisition in 1988 and was originally called "Sycamore Valley Ranch", was named after the fictional Neverland , the setting for the children's story Peter Pan .

Michael Jackson's estate

The ranch is located about 220 kilometers north of Los Angeles in the remote Santa Ynez Valley, about ten minutes outside the town of Los Olivos and about 18 km north of the town of Santa Ynez . The area lives primarily from viticulture.

Michael Jackson bought the ranch in 1988 and at the same time left his parents' house ("Hayvenhurst") in Encino , California . The Neverland Ranch included an amusement park with various rides that, according to Alex Gernandt , the former editor-in-chief of Bravo , he had bought in Germany. Neverland also housed a zoo, to which the US actress Liz Taylor contributed a 2,500 kilogram Asian elephant named "Gypsy". Taylor thanked her boyfriend Jackson for arranging one of her weddings on the ranch grounds. Jackson also had a cinema with around 40 seats and various museums on the premises. The total size of the property is 11 km². Whenever there is talk of the Neverland Ranch in the media, it is mostly the railway station building with the flower clock in front of it. This Disney movie-themed house was not the home of the estate.

Jackson invited sick or poor children to his ranch every third weekend of the month. There they could try out all the attractions, eat sweets or watch films in the in-house cinema for hours, sometimes together with him, free of charge. His chimpanzee Bubbles lived on the estate until Jackson became a father himself . As a result, the animal itself achieved world fame.

Selling and auctioning personal items

After his acquittal on child molestation charges in June 2005, Michael Jackson had left his primary residence in Los Olivos and moved to the Kingdom of Bahrain with his three children . Jackson's management repeatedly denied rumors of an alleged sale of the property. The Neverland Ranch was closed until further notice, as Jackson no longer considered the property to be his home since the trial ended in 2005. 69 employees worked on the ranch. Some of them could not be decommissioned because the amusement park with zoo was not open to the public, which caused further maintenance costs.

In the meantime, US actor Brad Pitt and his then wife, actress Angelina Jolie, wanted to buy the ranch for themselves and their children, but Raymone Bain had announced in a press release on November 9, 2007 that the Neverland ranch was not for sale stand and will not pass to other owners.

On February 27, 2008, the US television station Fox News reported that the property should be auctioned on March 19 if Michael Jackson could not settle US $ 24.5 million in outstanding debts (relating to the property) by then . In agreement with Jackson himself, the auction house Julien's Auction from Beverly Hills is said to have received the contract to auction the valuable interior and all of Jackson's personal items - including the star's private wardrobe. According to its own information, the auction house prepared the auction nine months in advance and put together all the exhibits for sale, including the famous entrance portal to the Neverland Ranch, in a five booklet auction catalog. These booklets were divided into the theme worlds

  • "Garden Statuary and Outdoor Furniture" (garden statues and outdoor furniture, 112 pages),
  • "Furniture and Decorative Arts" (furniture and decorative arts, 218 pages),
  • "Antiques, Paintings and Fine Decorative Art" (antiques, paintings and high quality art, 128 pages),
  • "Amusements, Arcade Games and Disneyana" (toys and entertainment, electronic games and Disney memorabilia, 242 pages),
  • "Memorabilia From the Life and Career of Michael Jackson" (memorabilia from the life and career of Michael Jackson, 258 pages).

In the proverbial last second, Michael Jackson is said to have averted both the auction of his personal belongings and the auction of the "Neverland Ranch" by means of a new loan agreement. The auction house around founder Darren Julien reported that an amicable agreement had been reached with Jackson. For the public in California this auction was canceled even a sensation: From 14 April to 25 April 2009, the exhibits from the "Neverland Ranch" could face an entrance fee of 20 US dollars in a huge warehouse on Wilshire Boulevard , specifically between The Beverly Hilton and The Los Angeles Country Club golf club, open daily between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. There was great interest. Visitors captured this exhibition in numerous private videos on YouTube.

While researching an issue of the US news broadcaster CBS's 60 Minutes format , the journalists learned that Jackson's possessions have been in five different warehouses in California since he bought it back in 2009. However, some exhibits were sold, whether with or against Jackson's consent is not clear. Julien's Auctions advertises on its website that they have auctioned the original jacket from the Jackson video Thriller for 1.8 million US dollars. Pop singer Lady Gaga bought one of his gloves studded with Swarovski crystals , who came out several times as a true Jackson fan.

The ranch was sold to a real estate company, majority owned by Colony Capital , in which Jackson had a stake, for a sale price of around $ 35 million . The private zoo has since been closed.

It went on sale in 2015 for a price of $ 100 million; the price was reduced to $ 67 million in 2017.

In 2017, the property went up for sale for $ 67 million, and finally in 2019 for $ 31 million.

Web links

Commons : Neverland Ranch  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Cash : Nobody Wants Jackson's Neverland Ranch , April 2, 2016, accessed April 2, 2016.
  2. Jump up ↑ Santa Ynez Valley Visitors Association on Yourself December 15, 2008
  3. ↑ wideopenpets.com: Neverland Ranch: What happened to Michael Jackson's animals?
  4. ↑ Welt Online: California: Brad Pitt wants to buy Neverland Ranch from November 9, 2007
  5. ↑ juliensauctions.com [1] Juliens Auctions auction house: The Michael Jackson auction
  6. ↑ juliensauctions.com: Auction catalog: Garden Statuary & Outdoor Furniture
  7. ↑ juliensauctions.com: auction catalog: Furniture and Decorative Arts
  8. ↑ juliensauctions.com: [2] auction catalog: Antiques, Paintings and Fine Decorative Art
  9. ↑ juliensauctions.com: Auction catalog: Amusements, Arcade Games and Disneyana
  10. ↑ juliensauctions.com: auction catalog: Memorabilia From the Life and Career of Michael Jackson
  11. ↑ juliensauctions.com: http://www.juliensauctions.com/auctions/2009/michael-jackson/ Julien's Auctions: exhibition instead of auction
  12. ↑ forbes.com: Michael Jackson's Neverland Contents Almost Went Up For Sale from May 19, 2013
  13. ↑ diepresse.com: Michael Jackson sells Neverland Ranch from November 13, 2008
  14. ↑ press.co.nz: Jacko hands over title to Neverland Ranch from December 15, 2008
  15. ↑ ecorazzi.com: PETA Goes After Michael Jackson's Neglected Giraffes from December 15, 2008
  16. ↑ joycerey.com: The Sycamore Valley Ranch formerly known as Neverland Ranch
  17. ↑ Candace Taylor: Michael Jackson's Neverland Relists for $ 31 Million — Or 70% Off . In: Wall Street Journal . February 27, 2019, ISSN  0099-9660 ( wsj.com [accessed February 28, 2019]).

Coordinates: 34 ° 44 ′ 43.3 "  N , 120 ° 5 ′ 16.4"  W.