Michael Jackson's Deathbed, Furniture, Artwork to be Auctioned Dec. 17

Word about items from the Los Angeles home Michael Jackson died in going to the highest bidder next month broke two days after a jury found Dr. Conrad Murray guilty of involuntarily killing the King of Pop Monday. However, Julien's Auctions founder Darren Julien told IBTimes Thursday he and his colleagues came up with the Dec. 17 event as early as five months ago.

He also stressed that Julien's Auctions held off on announcing it until the end of the trial, out of respect for Jackson's family.

We announce the auction about a month, month and a half before, and we were going to announce it before the trial ended but we figured it'd be better to wait, he said. We have a good relation with the family, as well as the estate.

Apart from Jackson's deathbed, the auction will feature artwork and other furniture from his home at 100 North Carolwood -- including a credenza, a vanity chair and a bench. Though Julien stated that the items are worth at least $400,000 altogether, the fact that Jackson owned them makes them worth about $1 million.

There's a mirror that he wrote on -- on a big credenza -- and he wrote 'March April. FULL OUT May.' Obviously, that was referring to his performance at the O2, he said, citing the This Is It London concerts Jackson had been preparing for when he died. There were some etchings that he did in the bench -- there's a wooden bench in the main shower... he would draw little stick figures... There's a vanity chair that, on the fabric, has a lot of makeup stains.

He recalled that Jackson contacted Julien's Auctions to clear out his home at Neverland Ranch, and remarked that the mansion he died in had a few things in common with the one he moved out of in 2005. It really reminded me of Neverland because of the hardwood floors, the big wooden staircase that goes upstairs, he said. He liked living there.

Perry Sanders Jr., an attorney for Jackson's mother Katherine, told The Associated Press he and his colleagues have done everything we can to ascertain that items from this address are not being auctioned using Michael's name and likeness to enhance the items' value. Jackson's name doesn't appear on the promotional materials for the auction.