News of January 9, 2017
Prison Letter and Tyson Ticket Go Under the Hammer
An erotic letter from his cell and the ticket from September 7, 1996: Goldin Auctions offered two pieces of Tupac memorabilia in January 2017.
A letter from prison and the ticket from Las Vegas: In January 2017, Goldin Auctions offered two contrasting pieces of Tupac memorabilia.
Erotic Lines from the Cell
Early in the month, a handwritten letter went up for auction that Tupac had written in prison in 1995 in reply to a love letter from an admirer (biography). The text is explicitly erotic and was quoted only in excerpts in media coverage. According to Vibe, citing TMZ, the auction was scheduled to close on January 16; the expected price was over $25,000.
The Ticket from September 7
A week later followed the ticket for the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas-the evening Tupac was shot (Mike Tyson, the 1996 shooting). According to AllHipHop, the owner said Tupac had given him the tickets after the first-round knockout. PSA/DNA confirmed the authenticity of the ticket; a minimum price of $25,000 was cited. The lot included a copy of Cathy Scott’s book The Killing of Tupac Shakur.
The provenance of both items rests on statements provided by the consignors.