MATERIAL GRR
Madge loses bid to KO sale of her Tupac letter, other items
WHAT’LL YA BID for Tupac’s breakup letter with Madonna?
The Dear Madge letter and other personal items belonging to her can be sold at auction, a Manhattan Supreme Court Judge ruled Monday.
The Material Girl had sued her former friend, Darlene Lutz, and Gotta Have It! online auction house last July to prevent Lutz from profiting off Madonna’s letters, cassette tapes and photos.
Her used brush and satin panties were among the items that she temporarily prevented from going up for bid through the lawsuit.
On Monday, Justice Gerald Lebovitz ruled that under a 2004 kiss-off agreement with Lutz, Madge forfeited her right to claw back her private items.
She’d also waited too long to sue over the belongings that had long been out of her possession.
“(Madonna) knew that throughout her relationship with Lutz, Lutz was in possession of various pieces of (Madonna’s) personal property,” the judge wrote in his decision.
“Yet before this action began, the plaintiff did not make any demand to return her possessions.”
Madonna had said she didn’t realize the items were no longer in her possession until she saw press coverage of the auction.
She had described some of the items as “highly confidential and embarrassing.”
“It’s a clear cut victory for us,” Gotta Have It! online auction house co-owner Ed Kosinski said.
“She shouldn’t have signed a settlement agreement relinquishing the right to all property in Darlene’s possession.”
The auction site said that it knew from the beginning that they would prevail.
“We did substantial due diligence when we took all the Madonna items for auction. We were confident that Madonna had no claim whatsoever,” the company said in a statement.
In the letter Shakur wrote to the Queen of Pop in 1995, he blamed their breakup on society’s perception of a black man dating an older white woman. He was shot to death the following year.
Last year before the lawsuit, the opening bid for the letter was $100,000.
Fans can place their bids again in July when the items go back on sale .
Lawyers for Madonna did not return calls for comment.