Elvis Presley's iconic Graceland estate is staying in the hands of his heirs… for now, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
At a hearing on Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, Shelby County judge JoeDae Jenkins blocked the attempted sale of Graceland. The estate was scheduled to be sold at a foreclosure auction on Thursday.
The hearing only lasted eight minutes with the judge saying, “The notary has sworn that the notary did not notarize the signature of Lisa Marie Presley on the deed of trust, which brings into question the authenticity of the signature.”
The Battle for Graceland
Presley's granddaughter, actress Riley Keough, and the trustee of the Promenade Trust filed a lawsuit on May 15. The suit claimed that Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC attempted to sell Graceland on the basis of a forged signature from Keough's late mother, Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis' daughter, which allowed the property as collateral for Presley's $3.8 million loan.
The claim asked the court to prevent Naussany Investments from profiting off Graceland's sale.
The Associated Press reported that Keough's lawyer wrote in the lawsuit, “These documents are fraudulent.”
“Lisa Mary Presley never borrowed money from Naussany Investments and never gave a deed of trust to Naussany Investments,” the suit continued.
Keough did not attend the Shelby County Chancery Court hearing on Wednesday, People reported.
The Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. insisted in a statement on Monday that both the foreclosure and sale attempts were fraudulent.
“There is no foreclosure sale. Simply put, the counter lawsuit that has been files is to stop the fraud,” Graceland's corporate entity stated to THR.
On Monday, Elvis' ex-wife and Keough's grandmother, Priscilla Presley, posted a photo of the estate on her Instagram account with a moving graphic that said, “It's a scam,” in reference to the foreclosure sale.
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The home of the King of Rock and Roll
The mansion is on a 13.8-acre estate is where the King of Rock and Roll are buried. So are his parents, paternal grandmother, grandson and daughter. Five years after Elvis' death, Graceland was opened to the public to serve as a house museum on June 7, 1982. It attracts more than 650,000 visitors yearly.
The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. It's the first site to be recognized with such significance in relation to rock music. In 2006, Graceland was declared a National Historic Landmark, also a first for a site such as this.
The first person to inherit the estate was Elvis' father Vernon on the legendary singer's death. His daughter, Lisa Marie, inherited Graceland on her 25th birthday, following a document which named Priscilla Presley, her mother, as trustee. After Lisa Marie died last year, her eldest daughter Riley took over as its sole trustee and owner.
Priscilla lived at Graceland for a time before she married Elvis in Las Vegas. Their daughter lived the first few years of her life on the estate as well. After Elvis and Priscilla divorced, Lisa Marie visited yearly every Christmas.
There have been a few notable visitors to Graceland over the years. In 1978, Muhammad Ali was one of its first celebrity visitors. Paul Simon also toured the estate on the same year. He wrote the title track to his Grammy-winning album Graceland about the property.
In 2006, President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on a tour of Graceland. Monaco's Prince Albert II and his then-fiancée-now-wife Princess Charlene visited in 2010. In 2013, Paul McCartney also took a tour. A year later, Princes William and Harry visited as well.
In 2022, Austin Butler and Tom Hanks were interviewed inside Graceland's famed Jungle Room by Good Morning America, to promote their film Elvis.
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