When The Law and Collecting Intersect: Auction of Madonna’s Personal Items Temporarily Stopped By New York Court

Steven Kotchek
Jul 21, 2017 · 4 min read

Want to own Madonna’s hair? One auction company in New York City was giving buyers an opportunity to buy that, and many more personal items of Madonna including a handwritten letter to her from Tupac Shakur, “personally worn” panties, photographs, letters, and unreleased music on cassette tapes, in an auction previously scheduled for July 19, 2017.

Darlene Lutz, who described herself as “Madonna’s art consultant” and “longtime personal friend of Madonna’s from her innermost circle, knowing her for over 20 years” listed the lot of collectibles with an auction company who were actively promoting the goods prior to Madonna’s legal team stepped in.

The Tupac Shakur letter has garnered the most attention amongst collectors (and us), and was previewing for a minimum bid of $100,000 (which in our opinion would have been a challenge to get to and we are happy to elaborate on our views on its value). The handwritten letter from Tupac, dated January 15, 1995, was written during his incarceration at New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility for sexual assault.

In the note, he explains the reason for his breakup with Madonna. “For you to be seen with a black man wouldn’t in any way jeopardize your career, if anything it would make you seem that much more open and exciting.” “But for me at least in my previous perception I felt due to my ‘image’ I would be letting down half of the people who made me what I thought I was.”

“I never meant to hurt you,” he stated. “Please understand my previous position as that of a young man with limited experience with an extremely famous sex symbol.”

The subject matter of the letter is definitely interesting, and can be read in full here.

Madonna said in Court filings she “never sold, gifted or otherwise transferred title or a possessory interest in any of the Madonna Memorabilia to Ms. Lutz” and she is “suffering irreparable harm” due to the “unauthorized display, disclosure and dissemination of highly personal information, including her, her friend’s and former boyfriends’ confidential mental thoughts and impressions.” A New York State Supreme Court judge ordered that the sale of the Tupac letter (and other items) be temporarily halted pending further hearings on the matter.

As a former practicing attorney, I foresee there being issues with the legality of Madonna’s legal arguments that will certainly come up in future Court proceedings. First, it appears that she is well past the statute of limitations to sue Ms. Lutz for conversion (otherwise known as theft), which is three years (the conversion was alleged to have occured in the 1990's).

Also, in searching public court records, there was a previous suit filed by Madonna against Ms. Lutz several years ago. As it appears the matter never went to trial, we can assume it was settled out of court. When lawsuits are settled, there is typically a release provided by the plaintiff which, for the amount of the settlement, releases the defendant from all known, and unknown, causes of action against them. This would potentially include this alleged conversion by Ms. Lutz. Thus, even assuming Ms. Lutz did in fact convert the property of Madonna, and Madonna did not know about it, Madonna may have already released Ms. Lutz from liability for doing so.

This is a situation that should be considered by collectors of this type of memorabilia. Where did the item come from? Who really owns it ? If a buyer would have bought this, what would have happened if Madonna then reacted? Having items with “depth” creates a ton of collectible value, but can also get in the crosshairs of being too “personal”.

This also has some involvement of “provenance” and its importance. Collectors should always ask for provenance, and try to get as direct a line to the artist’s original ownership as possible. This is something we focus on A LOT for our game used or personally-owned, used items we collect.

So, we won’t get to see what this letter would have brought at auction but once again we learn. With selling or consigning these types of items, there is this risk. We are seeing it more and more with higher profile, more valuable items. If these Madonna items are ultimately be determined by a Court of law to be the property of Ms. Lutz, maybe there will be a part 2.

On a side note, there has been an awful lot of Tupac memorabilia hitting the market. We were first excited by the initial items over a year ago, but it seems like every auction is featuring letters, poems, lyrics and other personal material. I’m not disputing the authenticity, but it seems like there is a lot more out there than one may have thought. It tempers my excitement and the value I would put on much of it….but that’s for another blog post!

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