Jackson Home Site of Benefit for S. Africans

Security was so tight around Michael Jackson’s home in Encino on Sunday that people might have gotten the idea that the superstar entertainer was actually at home.

But he wasn’t. What was at the home, though, was what was billed as the world’s second largest pearl, all 577 of its silvery-pink carats.

There was also more than $1 million worth of art--works by Degas and Picasso, among others.

Home Open to Public

The Jackson family estate grounds became a million-dollar auction gallery, open to the media and public for the first time, for a fund-raiser for homeless families in South Africa.

Although the Jackson family’s most famous member, Michael, was not on hand, his parents, at least one sibling, a few other celebrities and about 250 artists, collectors and others crowded under a white tent in the front yard and around the pool in the back yard. They viewed and then bid on more than 100 artworks in an event called “A Bid for Human Rights,” sponsored by the San Francisco-based Adelphia Foundation.

Equally intriguing to the bidders was the chance to browse about the grounds of the Tudor-style home, where one of the most reclusive entertainers in the world has lived.

Joe Jackson said he offered the use of his family’s home to help draw attention to the plight of the homeless in South Africa.

“I’ve always wanted to do this kind of thing,” he said. “It’s for a good cause and it will get help to those that need it.”

Humanitarian Aid

Lia Belli, president of the Adelphia Foundation and chief organizer of the auction, said the money will go to the South African Council of Churches to pay for humanitarian aid, primarily for housing and medical needs, to the homeless.

“It is to be used for nonviolent, nonpolitical needs,” said Belli, wife of San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli.

Nearly every item offered brought several thousand dollars from bidders, although some of the more valuable items--works by Degas and Norman Rockwell and a 35-foot-long stretch limo with three phones, two VCRs and a bed--apparently were too expensive to draw even minimum bids.

However, the audience broke into loud applause when the pearl sold after only one bid--$1.25 million, the announced minimum. The young woman bidder declined to give her name, saying she was a buyer’s representative.