Level 1 - Absolute Beginner

Michael Jackson was a very famous singer. He wore a red and black leather jacket in his Thriller video in 1983.

Now that jacket will be sold. An auction house called Julien's will sell it. People will pay money to buy it.

The sale is in Abu Dhabi. It happens on December 7, 8 and 9. Abu Dhabi is a city in the United Arab Emirates.

Some people think the jacket will sell for more than ten million dollars. A white glove with small shiny stones will be sold too.

singer

A person who sings songs.

jacket

A short coat that you wear on the top of your body.

leather

Strong material made from animal skin.

auction

A sale where people offer money and the highest offer wins.

sell

To give something to someone for money.

glove

A piece of clothing that you wear on your hand.

famous

Known by very many people.

million

The number 1,000,000.

Level 2 - Elementary

Julien's Auctions has announced a sale called Michael Jackson: The Fashion Legacy Auction. It will take place at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi hotel from December 7 to 9, as part of the company's Celebrity and Pop Culture Experience.

The most famous item is the red and black leather jacket from the 1983 Thriller music video. The black shoes from the same video are in the sale too, together with the rhinestone covered glove and the loafers Jackson wore during rehearsals for Motown 25.

Motown 25 is the 1983 television special where Jackson first performed the moonwalk during Billie Jean. Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien's, said the Thriller jacket is the one the world has never stopped talking about.

Julien's has sold Jackson items before. It sold the Motown 25 glove in 2009 and a Thriller jacket in 2011, both for record prices. Before travelling to Abu Dhabi, the items will be shown in Los Angeles at an event called This Is Thriller, hosted by Prince Jackson's Heal Los Angeles Foundation at the Palace Theatre.

legacy

The things a person leaves behind that people remember them for.

item

A single object in a group or list.

rhinestone

A small shiny stone made of glass that looks like a diamond.

loafers

Flat shoes without laces that slip onto the foot.

rehearsal

A practice performance before the real one.

special

A one-off television programme made for a particular occasion.

record price

The highest price ever paid for something of that kind.

foundation

An organisation set up to give money or help to good causes.

Level 3 - Intermediate

Few garments in popular music are as instantly recognisable as the red and black leather jacket Michael Jackson wore in the 1983 Thriller video, and it is now heading for the auction block. Julien's Auctions has announced Michael Jackson: The Fashion Legacy Auction, to be held at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi from December 7 to 9 as part of the house's Celebrity and Pop Culture Experience. Reports circulating this week suggest bidding on the jacket could pass ten million dollars.

The jacket does not go alone. The lot list includes the black shoes worn in the same video, the rhinestone covered glove from the Motown 25 television special and the loafers Jackson wore while rehearsing for it. The Motown 25 pairing carries particular weight: it was during Billie Jean on that broadcast that Jackson unveiled the moonwalk, a few seconds of choreography that reset expectations for what a pop performance could be.

Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien's, summed up the appeal bluntly, calling the Thriller jacket the one the world has never stopped talking about. The house has history here. It sold the Motown 25 glove in 2009 and a Thriller jacket in 2011, each at a record setting price, the latter going for one point eight million dollars. The question collectors are asking is whether an Abu Dhabi saleroom and nearly two decades of appreciation can multiply that figure several times over.

Before the pieces travel to the Gulf they will be displayed in Los Angeles at This Is Thriller, an event staged by Prince Jackson's Heal Los Angeles Foundation at the Palace Theatre. The sale arrives against an uncomfortable backdrop, with Jackson's daughter Paris continuing a court fight over the handling of her father's estate, a reminder that the market for a legacy and the management of one do not always move in step.

garment

A piece of clothing.

auction block

The place or moment where an item is offered for sale to bidders.

lot

An item or group of items sold together at an auction.

choreography

The arrangement of steps and movements in a dance.

unveil

To show something to the public for the first time.

saleroom

The room where an auction takes place.

appreciation

An increase in the value of something over time.

estate

All the money and property a person leaves when they die.

Level 4 - Advanced

The economics of pop memorabilia rest on a simple asymmetry: the performance is infinitely reproducible, the object worn during it is not. That asymmetry is about to be tested at the top of the market. Julien's Auctions has announced Michael Jackson: The Fashion Legacy Auction, convening at the Rosewood Abu Dhabi from December 7 to 9 under the banner of the house's Celebrity and Pop Culture Experience, with the red and black leather jacket from the 1983 Thriller video as its centrepiece and reported expectations that bidding could exceed ten million dollars.

The consignment has been assembled with an eye to narrative rather than mere volume. Alongside the jacket sit the black shoes from the same shoot, the rhinestone encrusted glove from the Motown 25 television special and the loafers Jackson wore in rehearsal for it. Pairing the Thriller wardrobe with the Motown 25 artefacts is a curatorial decision as much as a commercial one, since it brackets the two moments in 1983 that transformed a successful recording artist into a figure of global iconography: the short film that made the music video an art form, and the thirty seconds of Billie Jean in which the moonwalk entered public consciousness.

Martin Nolan, co-founder and executive director of Julien's, has pitched it in the plainest possible terms, describing the Thriller jacket as the one the world has never stopped talking about. The house can point to precedent. It achieved record prices for the Motown 25 glove in 2009 and for a Thriller jacket in 2011, the latter realising one point eight million dollars. Whether the intervening fifteen years of appreciation, a Gulf saleroom and a collector base increasingly willing to treat cultural artefacts as an asset class can produce a multiple of five or more is precisely the uncertainty that makes the sale interesting.

Context complicates the celebration. The lots will be exhibited first in Los Angeles at This Is Thriller, an event mounted by Prince Jackson's Heal Los Angeles Foundation at the Palace Theatre, lending the dispersal a philanthropic frame. Yet it proceeds while Paris Jackson presses a court challenge over the administration of her father's estate, an unresolved family dispute that sits awkwardly beside the orderly machinery of a catalogue sale. Monetising a legacy and governing one are distinct exercises, and this auction stages the tension between them in a single room.

memorabilia

Objects kept or collected because of their links to famous people or events.

asymmetry

A lack of balance between two things.

consignment

A group of goods handed over to someone else to sell.

curatorial

Relating to the selection and arrangement of items for display.

iconography

The set of images and symbols associated with a person or idea.

precedent

An earlier case that serves as a guide for what may happen.