BY Daniel Bampoe
A glittering piece of pop music history — a single rhinestone-encrusted sock worn by Michael Jackson during his 1997 “HIStory World Tour” — has been sold at auction in France for more than $8,800, decades after it was first discarded backstage.
The crystal-embroidered white athletic sock, now yellowed with age and marked with visible stains, went under the hammer at the Nîmes auction house on Wednesday.
Initially estimated to fetch between €3,000 and €4,000 ($3,400–$4,500), the item sold for €7,688 ($8,822), according to auctioneer Aurore Illy.
The “King of Pop” famously wore the socks during a concert in the southern French city of Nice in July 1997, where he dazzled fans with his iconic “Billie Jean” performance.
A backstage technician reportedly found the sock discarded near Jackson’s dressing room after the show in Nîmes, keeping it as a personal memento for years before it made its way into the collectibles market.
The sock is considered a “cult object” among Jackson’s global fan base, with its rhinestones still intact despite discoloration over time.
It is one of several high-profile pieces of Jackson memorabilia to fetch significant sums at auction in recent years.
In 2009, a Macau gaming resort paid $350,000 for the glittery glove Jackson wore during his first televised “moonwalk” in 1983.
More recently, in 2023, a fedora he wore just before that same performance sold in Paris for more than $80,000.
Michael Jackson died in June 2009 at the age of 50 from a fatal overdose of propofol.
Despite years of controversy and allegations of child molestation — which he and his estate consistently denied — his influence and popularity remain unmatched in the music industry.
