Black tie isn’t a dress code you hear very often anymore. Even the most upscale of weddings tend to be cocktail affairs – but if any occasion were to call for a sharp tuxedo, it would be tonight: the first of Sotheby’s six evening auctions to sell off Freddie Mercury’s belongings to the highest bidder.
A Tiffany moustache comb, the scribbled-down lyrics to “Don’t Stop Me Now”, his Yamaha baby grand piano: the Queen frontman left these and everything else he owned to Mary Austin, his close friend and first love. Now, more than 32 years after Mercury’s death, Austin is selling it all at Sotheby’s in the largest single-collector sale the prestigious Bond Street auction house has hosted in years. A portion of the proceeds will go to charity, one lump to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and another to the Elton John AIDS Foundation. How much, however, is unclear.
