During his lifetime, the late Indianapolis Colts owner and CEO Jim Irsay used his considerable wealth to amass the most valuable private guitar collection in the world.
Three of the 10 most expensive guitars ever sold at auction – including Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang and David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster, numbers 2 and 3 on that respective list – belonged to Irsay, and the value of his whole collection has been estimated at a billion dollars.
After his death last May, questions swirled as to what would become of the collection, given that Irsay was adamant that even the most valuable guitars in it be played onstage, and not merely sit encased in glass.
Earlier this year, though, it was revealed that the whole thing – the jewels included – would go under the hammer at Christie's auction house in New York. As the auction unfolded today (Thursday, March 12), we were live on the floor.
The big question on our minds was, inevitably, will we see the great big record – the $6 million shelled out for Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E in 2020 – fall?
Did it ever! The previous record holder now finds itself in 4th place.
On top once again is David Gilmour's Black Strat. Having set the record as the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction back in 2019, for a measly $3.975 million, the Black Strat reclaimed its record once again with authority, selling for an astonishing $14.5 million.
Also going for eight figures was Jerry Garcia's “Tiger” guitar, which fetched $11.5 million. Kurt Cobain's Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang, previously #2 on the list with a selling price of $4.55 million, went for a cool $6.9 million.
Read on for our live report from the floor, as it happened.
The room's filled up since this writer took this photo. Recognize those guitars up there in the front?
No blockbuster guitar sales yet, but we've just seen one of Ringo Starr's drum kits sell for north of $2 million!
Owned by John Lennon and used by him for the Beatles' 1964 Christmas show – then later gifted to Ringo Starr – this 1964 Rickenbacker has become the first mega guitar sale of the auction, with a sale price of $1.27 million.
Aaaaand the 1964 Gibson SG pictured below – used extensively by George Harrison from 1966-1968 – has said, “hold my beer!” $2.27 million! This was well over its estimate. Will that be a theme as the evening goes on?
Though not the most valuable guitar in the lot, this custom, prototype guitar made by Vox for the Beatles in 1966 is certainly one of the most unique. Someone's just parted ways with just about $600k to grab it.
One of the most iconic guitars of the 1960s, Eric Clapton’s The Fool SG, has just sold for a whopping $3 million, after a massive bidding war. This is also far above its estimate. One of the most significant six-strings in the lot, it will forever be associated with Slowhand's tenure in Cream.
So, I'm not supposed to curse, but holy shit. David Gilmour's Black Strat, the guitar most synonymous with the Pink Floyd legend, has just sold for $14.5 million, after 21 minutes of bidding. This more than doubles – destroys, really – the previous record for the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction.
Well, the excitement from the Black Strat sale lasted about 10 minutes. Jerry Garcia's “Tiger” guitar has also obliterated the pre-auction record mark, selling for $11.5 million. Two guitars have more than doubled, or come close to doubling, the previous record for the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, in less than 15 minutes.
It almost doesn't feel noteworthy at this point, but the $6 million flat high water mark set by Kurt Cobain's MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E six years ago has been eclipsed a third time – by the Nirvana man's Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang, previously the second most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. It's fetched $6.9 million.
The Martin 000-42 Eric Clapton used for his beloved, enormously successful MTV Unplugged performance has also fetched a princely sum: $4.1 million. Classic rock-affiliated six-strings in particular have blown well past their estimated values this evening.
And that about wraps this sucker up, in terms of blockbuster guitars. We figured going in that this would be the biggest guitar auction of all time, and truly, nothing else comes within the zip code of this sale. For the first time (at least publicly), we've seen individual guitars sell for eight figures. We only hope that some (all, ideally) of the new owners of these instruments follow in the footsteps of their previous owner in not keeping them permanently behind glass.
Until then, we uh, need to completely re-write our list of the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction...
