Jackson counter-sued by Julien's Auction House

London (ANI): An auction company sued by King of Pop Michael Jackson has hit back at him, claiming that the singer had permitted it to sell his personal belongings. Julien's Auction House was sued by Jackson in Los Angeles on March 4 over entitlement to retain possession of the latter's 'personal property'.

The company was planning to sell the gates to the Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara, California, Jackson's famous rhinestone gloves and socks, and the hands of Johnny Depp's movie character Edward Scissorhands that the singer owned. Lodging their complaint, Jackson's lawyers claimed that the auction house had repeatedly refused to return the items, which were due to be put up for sale on 22 April.

However, the company has now refuted the claims. Darren Julien, the owner of the company, insists that Jackson was aware of the plans to put his belongings on the auction block. "As you can imagine we're quite shocked by it because we've been working very closely with Mr Jackson and his manager over the last eight months," the Daily Express quoted him as telling British TV show GMTV.

"We are an auction house - that's all we do - so if he didn't want the items to be sold we don't understand why we were given possession of them in the first place," he added.

Julien is sure that the situation is just a mix-up between the two sides, and that it can be resolved. "We are trying to sort this out but we are confident it's just a misunderstanding because, like I said, the last eight months we've worked closely with them on this whole project," he said.