The Tom Petty property has revealed that it’s “pursuing swift authorized motion” over the public sale of allegedly “outright stolen” memorabilia.
Tom Petty’s official Twitter account only in the near past posted a prolonged message in regards to the authorized motion and the property’s qualms with the concerned public sale home, Boston’s RR Public sale. (When contacted by DMN, RR offered an announcement and drove residence in a follow-up e-mail that it “doesn’t personal the objects” in query, however as an alternative represents “the consignor.”) At current, RR is accepting bids on all method of attire that’s mentioned to have belonged to the “I Gained’t Again Down” vocalist, songwriter, and producer.
Among the many objects featured within the 45 listings at hand are “Tom Petty’s MTV Duffle Bag” (which has been bid as much as $569), “Tom Petty’s Beaded Moccasins” (with a $200 main bid), and “Tom Petty’s Colourful Burmese Hat with Elephants and Flowers” (an $847 main bid). Additionally included are t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, vests, footwear, boots, scarves, and guitar straps.
In keeping with RR’s web site, the objects’ comparatively simple path to public sale could be traced to Petty’s 1996 divorce together with his first spouse, Jane Benyo, who’s mentioned to have acquired their longtime Encino residence (ostensibly together with its contents) as a part of the corresponding settlement. However Benyo is claimed to have misplaced the house to foreclosures in 2015, and the financial institution then enlisted contractors to filter out the home in preparation for a sale, per RR’s description.
“In February 2023, our consignor bought this stuff that the financial institution discarded,” RR defined of the memorabilia’s journey to public sale. “A number of of the objects have been photograph matched, together with Tom Petty’s well-known black and white striped jacket, a number of t-shirts, a Greenpeace sweatshirt, and a black cap seen in pictures and worn throughout an look on Molly Meldrum’s Australian TV present.”
However as initially talked about, the Tom Petty property – which beforehand grappled with a high-profile authorized battle between the singer-songwriter’s widow and daughters – is emphasizing in no unsure phrases its opposition to the public sale.
“The household of Tom Petty is pursuing swift authorized motion towards RR Public sale home,” the property wrote partly. “The home has introduced a present public sale of non-public property of Petty’s that the complete household firmly believes has been outright stolen from a secured archive based mostly on prior data, employees observations and documentation.
“The household is pursuing all obtainable authorized motion for the fast return of this stuff, and so they ask that followers and collectors chorus from taking part on this public sale till the matter is settled to keep away from getting additional concerned on this authorized motion.”
And whereas the Tom Petty property has likewise alleged that RR is providing the “memorabilia with a very false provenance inaccurate to truth” and is “in full denial of clear proof they’ve been offered,” the public sale home pushed again towards the claims in an announcement to Digital Music Information.
“RR Public sale has been cooperating with the Petty household from the second they reached out to us simply days in the past and can fortunately proceed to take action with out pointless hostile threats of litigation,” RR legal professional Mark Zaid instructed us.
“We take theft allegations reminiscent of these very significantly. Certainly, within the years I’ve represented the corporate, we’ve by no means failed to succeed in an amicable decision when on the uncommon event objects offered by our consignors turned out to have provenance issues.
“We proceed to diligently examine this example and have requested the Petty household to cooperate with us as effectively. That mentioned, we additionally take significantly any defamatory allegations towards our firm, which has developed a stellar repute during the last half-a-century of auctions, a lot of which are sometimes within the information,” he completed.