Everyone thought Michael Jackson was broke and in debt when he died two years ago. He was signed up to do those thirty concerts in order to earn some much-needed money, having already squandered hundreds of millions on his insane lifestyle. His estate was in foreclosure, his amusement park was left empty and in desrepair like a setting for a horror movie. There wasn’t even enough money to pay for the upkeep of the exotic animals in his zoo. I remember when his nanny, Grace Rwaramba, was interviewed after his death and revealed that they’d been sponging off the King of Bahrain until 2007 and later lived with friends. She said that they stayed for weeks in a small home of a friend of Jackson’s in New Jersey, with all three of the kids staying in one room with her.

Grace also revealed that Jackson remained foolish with his money even when they were homeless. She said that he’d received some money and instead of using it to buy a home Jackson told her to spend it on antiques. “Suddenly… he received some money. Instead of buying a small house, so that we won’t go from one hotel to another or stay with friends, he told me, ‘Grace, you have to go immediately to Florence to buy antiques.’ He wanted me to spend £1m. [$1.6m USD]… We didn’t even have a home to live in so we had to put the antiques in some storage.”

So Jackson had no clue how not to spend money, but apparently he bought some worthwhile art in his spending sprees. Star Magazine is reporting [via Radar] that art valued at nearly a billion dollars has been uncovered as potentially belonging to his estate. Only Jackson supposedly gave it all away to some friend of his and now his estate is trying to recover it.

Michael Jackson secretly left behind an almost billion-dollar secret art fortune that is now at the centre of an international tug of war, Star has exclusively learned.

The never-before-seen collection would have insured the King of Pop’s surviving children were looked after for life. But in a startling twist, the secret vault has been sold out from underneath them, at a ‘bargain basement’ price, relatively speaking.

Lawyers running the late Thriller singer are moving to block the $87.7 million sale to an undisclosed international businessman, in a desperate attempt to return the incredible treasure to Prince, 13, Paris, 12, and Blanket, 8, and their guardian, Jackson’s mother Katherine.

In an astonishing appraisal of the 182-pieces, obtained exclusively by Star, the “rare intact major collection” was valued at a whopping $902.52 million, with “an invaluable pedigree for future sales in the international art market.”

“Michael’s mystique in life combined with this exposure of his wonderful fine art creations following his tragic death will escalate the value of these works and the popularity of his artistic vision worldwide,” appraiser Eric Finzi, a certified member of the International Society of Appraisers, wrote in a document obtained by the magazine.

“I do not think we have begun to see the true value of this fine art yet.”

The loot is so valuable that it’s worth almost more than Jackson’s other assets combined, including copyrights to his pop hits and the Beatles’ catalog, which he purchased in 1998 for $47.5 million.

[From Radar]

It gets more complicated than just a bunch of previously unaccounted-for art and antiques that Jackson owned. Apparently Jackson gave it all away to a friend of his, Australian artist Brett-Livingston Strong, and Strong is the one trying to sell it. Only the document in which Jackson’s business manager told Strong he was entitled to the art wasn’t signed by Jackson and his family is questioning whether the transfer of the goods was legal and if Jackson was aware of it. So it’s a big mess at this point, just like everything else in this guy’s life.

These are actual photos taken from inside Neverland in December, 2003 during a police investigation. They show Michael Jackson’s bedroom, dressing room and bathroom. The place was filled with trash. Some rooms were surely habitable, but no one was cleaning up after Jackson’s clutter at that time. This is some hoarders-level chaos. (Update: as commenter Bagladey notes, these photos were taken after the house was searched. It still looks like there was a ton of junk in there.) No wonder Jackson and/or his people just gave it away. Check out the weird mannequin of the kid doing a handstand. I wonder how much that painting of Jackson as Jesus at a table full of luminaries recreating The Last Supper is worth.

Here’s the question, even if Jackson had access to all this additional money (which was tied up in the crap he bought), would he have been able to buy another home and live within his still enormous means? He’d already wasted probably a billion dollars. He could have easily blown through hundreds of millions more, and it probably wouldn’t have taken him long. I mean that’s how he ended up with all that stuff in the first place.

Interior photos are from December, 2003. credit: Bauergriffinonline.com. Header image from March, 2009. Credit: WENN.com