Elvis Presley Enterprises sued the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, saying casino staff illegally seized priceless items owned by the King.
Elvis Presley Enterprises says it loaned some 1,500 personal effects belonging to Elvis to the operator of the ELVIS: The Exhibition exhibit, which opened at the casino last year. Exhibit A Circle borrowed the items and ran the exhibit.
Soon after opening, the casino and Exhibit A Circle got into a landlord-tenant dispute, and Elvis Presley Enterprises says Westgate staff forcibly evicted the exhibit’s workers, and then seized the priceless Presley items.
Among belongings seized were a 1957 Harley-Davidson, a 1971 Stutz Blackhawk, a 1962 Lincoln Continental, yearbooks, stage outfits, and other priceless items.
Elvis Presley Enterprises says it’s not a party to the dispute, and the casino had no right to seize its items. Worse, it says the casino staff turned off the video cameras and did not handle or store the items properly, making it impossible establish authenticity of many items afterwards.
The value of the items now are diminished, and Elvis Presley Enterprises says it has no confidence in the Westgate’s ability to keep the items secured and stored properly.
Elvis Presley Enterprises is the sole owner of some 1.5 million Elvis artifacts, and says many of the items seized never were displayed outside of Graceland, which is the former home of Elvis’ mother and the King’s official museum.
It wants the Clark County District Court to order the items returned and seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
