Lawsuit alleges 'irreplaceable' Elvis Presley artifacts illegally put up for auction

The gatekeepers of Elvis Presley's estate are trying to recover a potential trove of records and memorabilia left behind by the King of Rock and Roll, according to a lawsuit filed in California.

The lawsuit, filed just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 24, is a fitting coda to a year that saw Presley's iconic Memphis home nearly auctioned off as part of what federal authorities now call an attempt to defraud both Presley's family and Elvis Presley Enterprises.

Now, the operators of Graceland allege "irreplaceable" items they bought more than three decades ago from Presley's longtime manager, Col. Tom Parker, have fallen into the hands of people who have no right to them and are now trying to sell them in an online auction.

"It is now clear that some of the material that the parties to the Parker Acquisition intended to be transferred to [Elvis Presley Enterprises], never was," the lawsuit claims. Despite "clear and repeated demands" that the defendants stop hawking what was not theirs to sell, those demands were "ignored," according to the filing.

At issue is a collection that allegedly includes everything from contracts and agreements signed by Presley, to a telegram from associates congratulating Elvis and his then-wife Priscilla on the birth of their daughter, Lisa Marie. Elvis Presley Enterprises contends the cache of memorabilia is valued at upwards of $2 million, though the "unique" artifacts are "priceless."

The items were listed on the website of GWS Auctions, a California company that boasts sales of "celebrity" items from the likes of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and Johnny Cash. The Presley items listed in the lawsuit appeared as available online in mid-November under the heading "The Lost Collection of Elvis, Col. Tom Parker & More." Elvis Presley Enterprises alleges the auctioneeing company advertised while knowing the sellers had no legal right to the items, which the company denies.

The origin of the dispute dates back to 1990, when Col. Parker, "known as a meticulous record keeper and a real pack rat who held onto everything," directly sold EPE "perhaps the greatest collection of Elvis-related documents and memorabilia ever held by anyone other than Elvis himself," the suit alleged, adding it is the "entire collection" as it pertained to "Elvis and Elvis related memorabilia, irrespective of where such material was located."

EPE acquired the collection as part of its ongoing effort to catalogue, preserve and showcase artifacts connected to the life and career of one of rock and roll's first global superstars. One of the company's executives, Jack Soden, "had dealt with and known Col. Parker for many years" and said he "was acting with the authority of Elvis's widow Priscilla Presley, was intent on acquiring from Parker every scrap of Elvis-related material Parker owned."

The lawsuit alleges company leaders believed all the items covered in the agreement "had been collected," only now to find otherwise. Some of those items "ended up in the possession" of one of Parker's former longtime employees after Parker's death in 1997, according to the filing.

Then in December 2021, the lawsuit says, the co-founder of GWS Auctions, Brigitte Kruse, reached out to both Priscilla Presley and Graceland's chief archivist to tell them she knew that the employee had items that should be in EPE's custody. Kruse allegedly even shared videos of her discussions with him acknowledging who owned what.

Kruse allegedly told Graceland's archivist Angela Marchese "that she knew these materials were involved in 'theft' and rightfully belonged to EPE," according to a signed declaration by Marchese obtained by ABC News.

When a Presley executive confronted the employee directly, he backtracked, saying it had all been "a misunderstanding," and he only had "photocopies," not originals, the suit says.

"Some of the very documents and memorabilia Kruse claimed [the employee] possessed have now been listed for sale," the suit alleges, adding "it is apparent" how those items "made their way" to the auction house.

"Kruse listed the Property for sale despite knowing, as she made clear in her email to Marchese and contemporaneous conversations with Marchese, that Kruse knew these items to be stolen Property rightfully belonging to [EPE]," the suit said.

EPE sent a cease-and-desist letter to Kruse earlier this month.

In response, a lawyer for GWS said the company "denies any wrongdoing whatsoever," and denies that the "characterizations of the communications between" Kruse and Marchese "are accurate or complete." GWS also denied EPE's property interest and said that they would "proceed with the auction," according to the suit and appended exhibits.

In a statement to ABC News, Kruse pushed back on the allegations against her and her company, saying that the assertions are "unfounded and without merit."

"EPE and Graceland's assertions are unfounded and without merit. This is merely another attempt to discredit our founder and the company. Under no circumstances would we engage in the sale of "stolen" items, and this collection was sought after by auction houses globally," Kruse said.

"The items in question successfully passed our auction house's due diligence process and were subsequently offered for public sale. Furthermore, no police report has ever been filed by EPE/Graceland, and the owner has possessed this collection for several decades," Kruse added.

As of Monday night, the auction site is still up, though bidding is closed.

The keepers of the Presley legacy say the decades-long story of Elvis is one of people trying to profit off of the King – and often at the expense of him and his family.

In May, Elvis' idyllic Graceland retreat was mysteriously announced for auction by an unknown company calling itself "Naussany Investments," which claimed that Lisa Marie used Graceland as collateral to take out a $3.8 million loan and had not repaid it.

The ensuing investigation stretched all the way from Memphis to Florida, where the notary whose fake seal was used for the alleged fraud spoke up -- and Presley's granddaughter countersued, stopping a possible sale. In August, the alleged perpetrator behind that alleged fraud was arrested in the Ozarks: Lisa Findley was apprehended on Aug. 16, the 47th anniversary of Elvis' death. Federal prosecutors charged the Missouri woman with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. The case is still pending, and Findley is last listed in custody in Tennessee.

"People have been trying to take from Elvis since Elvis was Elvis," Joel Weinshanker, managing partner of Elvis Presley Enterprises, told ABC News this fall. "Elvis was a human being. He was a really good human being," he said. "Pick on somebody else. Have a heart, have a conscience. And even if you don't have a heart or have a conscience -- know that you won't get away with it."