Is there a more iconic piece of clothing in pop music than the Thriller jacket? No there isn't. Michael Jackson's red and black jacket is as classic as it gets, which is why fans were surprised to see it up for sale. It seemed too good to be true, and evidently, it was. The auction house who made the offer has been criticized by Jackson's estate for misleading buyers. It appears that the jacket up for sale and the jacket MJ actually wore in the "Thriller" video are not the same.
The auction house in question, Gotta Have It Rock And Roll, listed the jacket as an authentic piece from the set of the classic music video. According to Jonathan Steinsapir, the attorney for Jackson's estate, this couldn't be further from the truth. The King of Pop only wore two Thriller jackets during the making of the video, and one of them sold for $2 million over a decade ago. Steinsapir pointed out that the sale of the "real" Thriller jacket was 20 times more than what Gotta Have It Rock And Roll is offering. In other words, the auction house knows they are hocking a random red and black jacket.
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Michael Jackson's Thriller Jacket Is NOT For Sale
Steinsapir's primary concern is misleading buyers. If an auction house like GHRR can sell an inauthentic piece as authentic, then it compromises the value of real Michael Jackson memorabilia. This would then hurt the pop star's estate. The attorney demanded the auction house alter its description to reflect the truth, and GHRR obliged. It now reads: "The jacket is similar to the jacket worn in the Thriller video."
This is not the first time Jackson's estate has had to keep GHRR in check. In December 2023, estate lawyers took legal action to pull unreleased demo recordings from an auction. Litigator Alex Spiro threatened to get a restraining order against the auction house unless they released the "unquestionably stolen" recordings. The threat proved successful. The recordings have never seen the light day, and have been removed from the official GHRR website.
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