Jacksoniana trove to travel

A mammoth collection of stage costumes, photographs, documents and props belonging to Michael Jackson and his famous family has been loaded into shipping containers after spending 18 months under wraps in Asbury Park, N.J.

The collection, whose seller contends it’s the largest accumulation of Jackson memorabilia in the world, is being shipped to a European buyer. Henry V. Vaccaro Sr. declined to name the buyer or price paid, but said the man intended to display the collection in Europe and Japan.

Vaccaro acquired the collection after nine years of legal battles with the Jackson family. He said a company that the Jacksons formed had agreed to buy his Neptune, N.J.-based Kramer Guitar Co. in 1992, but then defaulted on $1.4 million in payments the next year.

Vaccaro said he acquired the collection after paying off a bill that the Jackson family owed to an Oxnard warehouse.