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Elvis Crypt Pulled from Auction

Fans demand that the empty burial place be kept as a shrine

June 23, 2012 11:50 AM ET
elvis crypt
Elvis Presley's original crypt at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee
Julien's Auctions / Rex Features

Elvis Presley's original crypt has been pulled off the auction block from a sale of music memorabilia, the Associated Press reports.

Julien's Auctions had announced in May that the empty crypt in Memphis, where Elvis and his mother lay for two months before their reburial on the grounds of the Graceland estate, would be part of this Sunday's "Music Icons" auction. With a bid starting at $100,000, the price was to include a memorial inscription, use of the Forest Hill Cemetery's chapel for a service, and the opening and closing of the vault and crypt for burial.

Fans across the world were displeased by the potential sale, and demanded that the site be preserved as a shrine to the late King's memory. Darren Julien of the auction house announced on Friday that his company has agreed not to sell the crypt. 

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