Jackson surrounded himself with regal finery. There were suits of armour, display cases of custom-made crowns and an ornately carved throne with red velvet upholstering in his bedroom. "King Michael" even had a royal cape, a Father's Day present inscribed inside with a message from his children "Princess Paris" and "Prince Michael". In the lobby of the house was a commissioned portrait of Jackson as a young man in Elizabethan dress, holding a crown on a velvet pillow.
In a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the famed gates of the Neverland ranch now sit against a wall. The interior of the warehouse is littered with the ornaments that once decorated the grounds. There are bronze statues of frolicking cherubs, replica marble busts of Roman emperors, a huge statue of Prometheus that used to sit on a skull near the entrance. On shelves there are child-size diesel-powered race cars that used to zoom around the grounds. There is a Pope-mobile-style electric buggy fitted with tinted windows and stereo system. Another buggy has the King of Pop's face painted on its bonnet.The collection will be toured as an exhibition before it is actually auctioned.
That's an interesting parallel; I never thought of America/the West as a Michael Jackson society.
The whole Jackson story is a sad one, even leaving aside his abusive childhood. He had huge hits in the early 80s and made a pile of cash, whereupon delusions of grandeur started. But he had few hits after 1990. As commercial success faded, his delusion that he was the king increased. The story feels familiar because his whole country is in the same boat. Eg if you make cars and oil is running out, don't adapt - deny the unpleasant facts by making cars that need more oil.