Michael Jackson painting, last sold for $2.1 million in 1990

The owner of a long-hidden painting of Michael Jackson, reputed to be the only portrait he ever posed for, say they are trying to sell it amid the renewed interest after his death. The painting, last sold in 1990 for $2.1 million, was brought out of storage at New Jersey warehouse recently and put on exhibit in a Harlem car showroom.

The 50-by-40-inch painting, called “The Book,” was done in 1990 by an Australian artist, Brett-Livingstone Strong, who was a good friend of Mr. Jackson and shared his taste for slightly fantastical style of life and dress.

The painting is owned by two toy inventors, Marty Abrams and John Gentilly, who established the painting in 1992 from a Japanese businessman who had bought it to make good on a debt he owed the inventors.

Currently, the painting is being displayed at the Dancy-Power Automotive at Lenox Avenue and West 129th in Harlem, selected in part because it is owned by a friend of Mr. Abrams and also because it is near the Apollo Theater, where the Jackson 5 won an amateur night competition in 1967.