Cover ‘Legends in Motion’ auction by Julien’s Auctions (Photo: courtesy of Julien’s Auctions)
‘Legends in Motion’ auction by Julien’s Auctions (Photo: courtesy of Julien’s Auctions)
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Julien’s Auctions, known for dealing with Hollywood celebrity memorabilia, looks back at its most controversial sale in Hong Kong this year and ahead at its Asia plans
In 2024, Julien’s Auctions, the Beverly Hills-based auction house that specialises in celebrity and pop culture memorabilia, debuted in Hong Kong with a bang. So far, the maison has brought a long and illustrious list of auction items to our city: the belongings of Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Lee, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, BTS, Taylor Swift and Michael Jackson, to name a few.
Founder Darren Julien and co-owner Martin Nolan hope to continue this momentum in 2025. They have plans to set up galleries and strengthen Julien’s Auctions’ presence in Asia. In particular, they see Hong Kong as a hub for reaching Asian markets.
Tatler caught up with Julien and Nolan recently to talk about the fun and challenging moments of acquiring celebrity items, the most controversial sale this year and more.
Above From left: Darren Julien and Martin Nolan (Photo: Getty Images)
From left: Darren Julien and Martin Nolan (Photo: Getty Images)
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How was Julien’s Auctions founded?
Julien: I was involved with classic car auctions, and I worked with a lot of celebrities during that time. In 1999, Sotheby’s hired me to move to California. At that time, Sotheby’s and Christie’s tended to look down on celebrity memorabilia because it wasn’t fine art. Out of passion, Martin and I started [our own] business because we figured that it’d be fun. We weren’t making a lot of money early on. We were taking a lot of risk, but it was allowing us to travel the world.
Nolan: I was working for Merrill Lynch as an investment advisor. After 9/11, I wasn’t loving what I was doing. It lost meaning for me. I was looking for a change, and I met Darren in New York. He was doing an auction for Johnny Cash at Sotheby’s. He’s a brilliant marketing person but has no concept of financing. So I decided I’d come on board for six months. Twenty years later, I’m still here.
How did Julien’s Auctions change the dynamics in the auction market?
Nolan: When I left Merrill Lynch, they frowned upon me because I was going to an unnamed house called Julien’s Auctions. They thought memorabilia was like fan stuff.
Julien: In the last 20 years, we developed all these incredible celebrity relationships with Michael Jackson, Cher, Barbra Streisand and all these famous people without realising that memorabilia was going to be the new fine art. Now you see Sotheby’s and Christie’s wanting to take it on because we’re selling guitars for US$6 million, dresses for US$4 million. So it’s really taking off.
Above BTS’s outfits shown at ‘Legends in Motion’ in Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Julien’s Auctions)
BTS’s outfits shown at ‘Legends in Motion’ in Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Julien’s Auctions)
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In the early days, how did you convince celebrities to sell their items to you?
Julien: I convinced Barbara Streisand early on to let me sell some of her stuff on eBay, and then we talked her into doing two auctions. I didn’t realise the auction industry was just starting with celebrity. Once you do something for somebody that famous, the other celebs take note, and it opens doors. For us, it was three people: Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson worked with us when he was alive. He hired us to clear Neverland [Ranch]. That was a huge opportunity for us. Same with the estate of Marilyn Monroe. When Anna Strasberg was alive, she worked with us to do an estate auction of Marilyn Monroe. By having these three high-profile names, when we approach a celebrity, they listen because they know who we are.
Over the years, you’ve presented many Western celebrities. How did the Bruce Lee auction come about?
Nolan: We started [our Hong Kong plan] in January with Marilyn Monroe, and that was very well received. We came back again in April with the Princess Diana exhibition at K11 Musea, and we had more than 9000 visitors, which was way more than we would have in London, New York or Los Angeles. The people in Hong Kong had an appreciation for these items. So we thought, ‘Let’s do something that’s centric to Hong Kong.’ Bruce Lee was the appropriate one.
Julien: The Bruce Lee collection was owned by two collectors who distributed the Bruce Lee films. When we knew we wanted to do something in Hong Kong, we approached them and said, ‘We just did a Princess Diana exhibition. We would like to do [a similar one with] Bruce Lee in Hong Kong. It would be a good time for you to sell part of your collection.’ They loved the concept and that was how we got these items. Then we thought about what other artists are also popular in Hong Kong and Asia. Obviously, there is Michael Jackson, BTS and Taylor Swift. So we tailored the rest of the show around people who are popular in Hong Kong.
Above Judy Garland’s Dorothy dress in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (Photo: courtesy of Julien’s Auction)
Judy Garland’s Dorothy dress in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (Photo: courtesy of Julien’s Auction)
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What ethical protocols does your company have in handling celeb-owned personal belongings or memorabilia?
Nolan: We are always very protective of our clients. We would never represent something salacious or degrading. For example, Michael Jackson is no longer with us. We wouldn’t want something in the sale that might not be a true representation of him at his best.
As a code of ethics, we will never sell anything from Hitler. We would never touch anything from OJ Simpson. We will refuse that.
Julien: For items that don’t come from the celebrity, we have to go through a really strict process to [verify] the items’ provenance, chain of ownership and authenticity. Sometimes we can go to the celebrity if they are still living.
Diving deeper into the topic of ethics, in one of your exhibitions, you placed Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner’s items in the same space, which was controversial as Monroe never consented to Hefner using her images on Playboy. What was the thought behind that?
Julien: There was controversy, and the Marilyn Monroe fans did not like that. But we had such a long history with Hugh Hefner. We did his estate auction after he passed away. We’ve had such a long history with Marilyn Monroe [too]. We went to [her] estate and got the permission. We went to the Hefner’s estate and got the permission. Both parties knew that it would be controversial, because Hefner never met Monroe, right? But for us, we thought we’d embrace that association, because without Monroe, Playboy never would have started like it did, even though she didn’t pose for Playboy. We made sure we got permission from both estates before proceeding. A lot of fans were upset by the association, but sometimes you have to embrace history, and whether you like it or not, it is part of history.
Nolan: What was interesting about that collaboration of those two was when we were doing Monroe’s estate auctions, Hefner asked for us to send him her auction catalogue. When Monroe passed away, he wanted to be buried beside her, so he bought the crypt adjacent to Monroe, and we sold that crypt for two more than US$200,000 (about HK$1,550,000). That was a little bit controversial, but at the same time, we’re not creating or erasing history. It’s history, and we made it available.
Above The dress worn by Miley Cyrus at the 2024 Grammy Awards was sold by Julien’s Auctions in November 2024 (Photo: Getty Images)
The dress worn by Miley Cyrus at the 2024 Grammy Awards was sold by Julien’s Auctions in November 2024 (Photo: Getty Images)
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What was the craziest item you’ve ever sold?
Julien: William Shatner’s kidney stone, Truman Capote’s ashes…
Nolan: And the crypt.
What’s next for Julien’s Auctions?
Nolan: Asia is very important to us. Over the years, when we’ve done celebrities like Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe and Banksy, we get a lot of buyers from China. We noticed that it’s a market that’s up and coming. Now, with the power of the internet, you can be anywhere in the world to participate. This is why we’ve now set up offices in Hong Kong, and our future is that we want to have even more of a presence here. Instead of just offices, we’re hoping eventually to have a gallery where we have always something going on, be that celebrity or luxury-related.
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Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
