Dear MJ community,
I'm resurfacing this old thread and have joined the forum because of it. The story of the rare 1000 statuettes and the slightly different ones is quite a sad one. The internet caught parts of the true story, but not fully. Some of the members touched the reality of it.
I'm a visual artist and together with my partner we are working on a short film/ partly documenting this story in the bigger scene of economical change in Eastern European countries, after the Fall of the Wall and introduction to capitalist market.
Here is a resume of this side of the project, containing on short the story:
30 de ani de Optimism is a collaborative project in progress between German artist Lisa Marie Schmitt and Romanian artist Alexandru Mihai Budes, dealing with the story of Florin Istrate who owned a porcelain business in Alba Iulia, Romania. The film project interweaves investigative-documentary material with staged studio shots, such as arrangements of objects and artifacts related to a story of economical and structural change after the revolution in 1989.
Shortly after the fall of communism Istrate was contacted by Dieter Wiesner, who later became Michael Jackson’s manager, for a commission of over 100.000 figures of the King of Pop decorated in gold and platinum.
The first batch of 1000 was called in fast by Wiesner’s orders. Some were given as presents to people being close to Michael or auctioned as rarities for charity purposes. Photos prove that even Nelson Mandela owned of one of these figurines from the so-called Carlitta Collection. Others from the batch have entered the internet auction house market soon after the star’s death – selling with as much as 2000£.
After this first delivery, contact was cut abruptly and Florin Istrate remained with thousands of unfinished figurines and with high debts as well. He closed his company and quit all his staff personal. Why Wiesner never contacted Istrate again remains unclear to this day. For about 30 years, the ceramic workshop remained almost untouched, inhabited only by Michael Jacksons figurines.
The title of the project, 30 de ani de Optimism, quotes the current Coca-Cola advertising campaign in Romania, which celebrates the fall of communism and the import of Coca-Cola products.
Dieter Wiesner, former manager of Michael Jackson, also agreed to be interviewed in his Frankfurt office as part of the project.
The film takes a distance from the person of Michael Jackson and related abuse scandals. Jackson serves as a symbolic figure, a western product standing for the long-desired freedom of the people of Romania. He was the first megastar coming to Romania for a concert in 1992, shortly after the fall.
Mihai Coman, professor at Bucharest University writes about it in the essay Michael Jackson's 1992 concert in Bucharest: transforming a star into a saint:
"On the day of the concert, there was a state of emergency in the whole city. Someone said that if Michael Jackson is coming to Romania, that is a sign that God is looking at us, God is loving us."
The project will be presented in a solo exhibition in Cluj-Napoca in December 2021.
The so called ''fake'' statues come from the same workshop. Colorful ones were tests of color, while the few white ones where finished by Florin alone in the past 23 years, as costs of gold and platinum are way too high (4 grams reach about 100 euros). The extreme financial failure is still experienced by him to this day, as the dept is still being payed for even from his pension money, Florin being in this late 60's. The workshop is in ruin, technical equipment being sold one by one, brick by brick (the ovens).
Florin is making rarely sales from these ''other'' statues - maybe 1 or 2 per year. He doesn't know how to use the internet, barely knowing the sums the ''originals'' were sold for, the stories the internet generated and very late discovering that they became a rarity.
He always needed proxy persons to realise sales over internet, which in turn also took some unknown percentage.
3 types have been made by him:
- the most common ''History'' (in 3 sizes) - also talked about here, ordered for the big production described above
- the ''Mask'' (one size) - these were a test and did not enter mass production & very few were ever made, yet Michael has seen them
- the ''Throne'' (one size) - made as a present for Michael from Florin, also very few were made (he recalls sending away 10 in 98'). Florin still decorates from time to time one of these
Lisa and myself are writing to the community to find out more from the people that have such porcelain statuettes in their collection.
It would be amazing for our project to find out:
- Where have they reached on the planet?
- From where and when were they obtained form ? (internet auctions, vegas event, etc.)
- How much did they cost?
- Which History ''original'' number of the 1000 do you have? What about the ''others'' , colorful, white ones ?
- What information did you have about them, about the backstory?
It would be interesting for us to crate a global mapping of how they have resurfaced and where to be included in the project.
If you feel open to share this info with us we would be grateful. Also if you have pictures of them or could make some to share with us it would be amazing.
Either reply here, in a private message or by email (share in PM).
PS: will crate also a new thread, but replying here in hopes the people on top, that discussed all this will see this.
, pictured on 17th of June 09 …now i have only 2, one i gave to fellow MJ fan. I bought them in June 09 from one very kind German seller who offered me 4, but no one i knew was interested in them at that time
