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Born in a Texas lab and adopted by Michael Jackson in the early 1980s, the moon-walking chimpanzee accompanied the King of Pop at parties, press events, and on tour. The chimp reportedly drank green tea with Japanese politicians, sparked rumors that he was the ringbearer at Elizabeth Taylor’s eighth wedding (not true) and fell victim to a celebrity death hoax more than a decade before Twitter made them cool. Jeff Koons memorialized the unlikely friendship via a 1988 ceramic sculpture of the duo in one of their signature matching outfits, which is now part of SFMOMA’s collection. In fact, since retiring to the Center for Great Apes near Miami, Florida, in 2005, Bubbles has become quite the artist himself; two of his abstract expressionist paintings, valued at $1,500 each, were put up for sale last year to raise money for the primate sanctuary.