Last week, while attending the Jim Irsay Collection auction at Christies in New York, I watched a series of mystery bidders one-up each other for 20 solid minutes in a frenzied battle to acquire David Gilmour's famed Black Strat. $6 million became $8 million, which became $10 million. Then $12 million. The final price tag of $14.6 million left all attendees – myself included – gobsmacked.
The previous record for the most expensive guitar to ever sell at auction was set in 2020 – with the $6 million sale of Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E. For his part, the late Irsay thought that was far too high a price. This sale more than doubled that, and truly represented a new epoch in the value of the guitar.
