The head of Elvis Presley Enterprises has accused GWS Auctions in Los Angeles of selling selling potentially fake Elvis memorabilia—some of it with Priscilla Presley’s stamp of approval.
Joel Weinshanker is managing partner at Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the Presley estate, including his Memphis mansion-turned-museum, Graceland. He claims that GWS has sold items of questionable authenticity.
That includes pieces for which Graceland does not have receipts—something Presley was meticulous about keeping. And Priscilla, Elvis’s widow, allegedly vouched for things that Presley would have purchased either prior to their meeting, or after their separation.
Of particular concern was a black jacket Presley was said to have worn for a recording session at Nashville’s Studio B in 1971, offered at GWS in 2023. (The piece had an opening bid of $1,000, but did not sell.)
GWS Auctions offered this black jacket for sale as “Elvis Presley’s Custom Bill Belew Black Grommet Jacket.” The singer’s museum and estate, Graceland, claims to own the only such jacket from Presley’s collection. Photo courtesy of GWS Auctions.
“We know there was only one made, and guess what? We have it in our archives,” Weinshanker told NBC News.
Presley was in the news earlier this year when it appeared that Graceland was in foreclosure. But a judged blocked the sale of the historic property, and the whole affair was later revealed to be an attempted con by a Nigerian scammer.
GWS is known for dealing in Elvis memorabilia, most notably a white Presley jumpsuit from a 1972 performance at Madison Square Garden. The garment fetched over $1 million in 2021. The auction house began specializing in the singer’s effects in 2017, when it sold a red 1962 Lockheed Jetstar said to have been “personally owned” and “custom designed” by Presley.
Exterior view of Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, 2018. Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns.
But a previous owner, Roy McKay, has since claimed that he was actually the one who put in the flashy red and gold interior. It would have been gray when Presley owned it. The singer’s ties to the plane are actually pretty thin—it was technically purchased by his father, and Presley never flew on it. According to Graceland, he owned it just a few months, and it was operated by a leasing company during that time.
The jet sold for $430,000 at GWS—considerably less than its original $840,000 purchase price in 1976—only to come up at auction again in 2023. YouTube star James Webb bought it for just $234,000. (He plans to turn it into an RV that will tour the country to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and other charities, the Hill reported.)
The 2023 jet sale was with a different company, Mecum Auctions. Priscilla was present for the auction, telling prospective bidders that “[Elvis] loved planes and this was one of them.”
Exterior of Elvis’s 1962 JetStar, in New Mexico. Photo courtesy of Mecum Auctions, Inc.
Priscilla first got involved with GWS in 2021, when she met auction house owner Brigitte Kruse. She helped promote its 2022 sale of jewelry from the collection of Presley’s longtime manager, Tom Parker.
Weinshanker questioned the authenticity of two of those lots: a gold pendant and a pair of gold cufflinks. He claimed that Graceland didn’t have receipts for either, and pointed out Presley was said to have gifted one to Parker before she met the singer, and the other during a period the two were separated.
Priscilla told Reuters that she was helping advertise the auction because she was tired of Presley fakes. “There is so much product out there that is not authentic at all and that worries me,” she said.
GWS issued a statement noting that Elvis Presley Enterprise previously ran its own auction business, and a paid authentication service for Presley memorabilia that GWS declined to use for its sale of Parker’s jewelry.
“[Elvis Presley Enterprise] is not the only source of expertise with respect to Elvis Presley memorabilia,” the statement noted. “While experts can legitimately form different opinions regarding the authenticity of any item in any asset class, GWS stands behind everything that it sells, and categorically denies trafficking in fake or inauthentic items attributed to Elvis Presley, or otherwise.”
Kruse remains confident that GWS’s Presley memorabilia has all been genuine—and isn’t worried about the lack of receipts.
“We weren’t there. None of us were there,” Kruse told NBC. “So how can they without a doubt, unequivocally say, ‘We have everything?’ It’s an impossibility.”
She also puts great stock in Priscilla’s memories of events—although the two are currently locked in a legal dispute.
Priscilla Presley attends a red carpet for the movie Priscilla at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 04, 2023 in Venice, Italy. Photo by Stefania D’Alessandro/WireImage.
Kruse sued Priscilla for breach of contract in September 2023, as reported by the Daily Beast. The suit claimed that Kruse helped form the Priscilla Presley Partners company. The hope was to create new income streams to held “prevent Priscilla’s financial ruin.”
As part of the partnership, Priscilla allegedly named Kruse a co-trustee of her trust and granted her power of attorney. But the suit maintains Priscilla had already sold the rights to her name to another company, and cut off all contact with Kruse in August 2023—right before the release of the Priscilla biopic. Kruse is seeking at least $50,000 in damages.
Priscilla countersued last week, accusing Kruse of stealing $1 million in an elder abuse scam. The complaint claims that “by isolating her and immersing themselves in every aspect of her life, the Defendants were able to fraudulently induce [Priscilla] into giving them power of attorney, control over her family and personal trusts, and control over her bank accounts,” the complaint alleges.
Marty Singer, Priscilla’s lawyer, had not responded to inquiries as of press time.
“While Ms. Kruse categorically denies any elder financial abuse of Ms. Presley, those allegations do not involve GWS. Ms. Kruse’s personal and business relationships with Ms. Presley are separate and distinct from GWS,” the auction house noted in the statement. “Ms. Kruse is not an owner of GWS.”
“The suit filed is a retaliatory lawsuit due to the one filed by Priscilla’s business partners last year,” Kruse’s legal team told People. “We are confident that the facts will speak for themselves and justice will prevail. It saddens all of us who dropped our lives to provide aid to a woman who needed help and she is now attempting to use her celebrity status to ruin the lives of kind, hardworking people.”