In his final interview with Guitar World Kurt Cobain had said "Out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. I’ve only owned two of them."
One of them, the iconic left-handed Fender Mustang guitar that Cobain played in Nirvana’s ‘Smells like Teen Spirit” music video has sold for $4.55m at Julien’s Auctions, making it the most expensive item of Kurt Cobain memorabilia, by some margin, at the time of writing.
Image: Juliens Auctions
The Lake Placid blue coloured Fender guitar was the star item at the Music Icons memorabilia auction at New York’s Hard Rock Café.
The winning bidder was Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts and a famed music memorabilia collector.
The guitar was consigned by Kurt Cobain’s family who will be donating some of the funds to Irsay’s mental health charity 'Kicking the Stigma'.
Irsya commented “I am thrilled to preserve and protect another piece of American culture that changed the way we looked at world,”
“The fact that a portion of the proceeds will go toward our effort to kick the stigma surrounding mental health makes this acquisition even more special to me.”
Irsay had opened the bidding at $2m before finally having the winning bid at $4.55m.
The 3 day Juliens sale raised over $15m in total with another star item being the pink satin dress ensemble that Madonna wore in the Material Girl video. The ensemble which included satin gloves and rhinestone bracelets eventually went for $287,500.
The auction also included Cobain's Dodge Dart with an estimate of $400,000 - $600,000, the only remaining car known to be owned and driven by Cobain, and owned by his sister Kim for the last 28 years, plus a hand drawing by Cobain of Michael Jackson at $40,000 - $60,000, again from the collection of Kurt's sister Kim.
Image: Juliens Auctions
The auction again shows how popular Kurt Cobain memorabilia is. Other recent Cobain sales include:
A painting of an Old Milwaukee beer can by Kurt Cobain sold for $17,500 in 2017.
The same auction saw the sale of a hand drawn sketch by Cobain for $18,750. Titled Mr Mustache it included the handwritten quote 'Censorship is very American. The End. Love Kurt".
Another iconic piece of Kurt Cobain memorabilia is the white Sonic Youth t-shirt that Cobain wore on stage in Germany in 1994. Stage worn memorabilia always sells well and this particular t-shirt sold for £25,000 in 2014.