SFIV1967
Venerated Member
Julien Auctions in Beverly Hills reported that Kurt Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E guitar used with Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in November 1993 SOLD for US$ 6,010,000! A new world record for a guitar! The guitar was the seventh of only 302 D-18Es built by Martin and was customised by Cobain, who added a Bartolini pickup to the soundhole.
Buyer was the Australian entrepreneur Peter Freedman, the founder of Rode Microphones.
"Explaining why he bought the instrument, which soared above the estimate of about $1 million, Mr Freedman said the extravagant purchase was intended to bring attention to the lack of support for the arts community during COVID-19.
He plans to take the guitar to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in mid-August to raise funds to lobby the Australian government to come up with a financial scheme for suffering musos. Mr Freedman said he will later take the guitar across the US, the UK and Europe in an effort to lobby other governments into providing financial assistance to the arts.
Going into the auction Saturday US time, Mr Freedman said he had an ideal price in mind that was quickly surpassed during the bidding process.
"I’m still shell-shocked," he said. "I thought to myself, 'well, if it goes to 10, bring it on'. "I did try and do some pretty big smack-out ones [bids] but at the end, I think they just went 'this guy — he is nuts'."
The purchase breaks the record previously held — by the black Stratocaster belonging to Pink Floyd's David Gilmour which sold for $US 3.95 million last year.
Sources:
www.smh.com.au
www.theguardian.com
Ralf
Buyer was the Australian entrepreneur Peter Freedman, the founder of Rode Microphones.
"Explaining why he bought the instrument, which soared above the estimate of about $1 million, Mr Freedman said the extravagant purchase was intended to bring attention to the lack of support for the arts community during COVID-19.
He plans to take the guitar to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in mid-August to raise funds to lobby the Australian government to come up with a financial scheme for suffering musos. Mr Freedman said he will later take the guitar across the US, the UK and Europe in an effort to lobby other governments into providing financial assistance to the arts.
Going into the auction Saturday US time, Mr Freedman said he had an ideal price in mind that was quickly surpassed during the bidding process.
"I’m still shell-shocked," he said. "I thought to myself, 'well, if it goes to 10, bring it on'. "I did try and do some pretty big smack-out ones [bids] but at the end, I think they just went 'this guy — he is nuts'."
The purchase breaks the record previously held — by the black Stratocaster belonging to Pink Floyd's David Gilmour which sold for $US 3.95 million last year.
Sources:
The political motive that inspired $9m Cobain guitar purchase
Peter Freedman purchased one of Kurt Cobain's acoustic guitars, breaking the world record for the most expensive guitar sold, to make a point to the Prime Minister.
Kurt Cobain ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’ guitar sells for $6m
Nirvana frontman’s 1959 Martin D-18E sold to Australian who will put it on tour, with proceeds going to help struggling artists
www.theguardian.com
Ralf
