An electric guitar smashed by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in the 1990s has sold for nearly $600,000 at auction in New York – at least seven times more money than the auction house had expected.
AN ELECTRIC guitar smashed by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in the 1990s has sold for nearly $600,000 at auction in New York – at least seven times more money than the auction house had expected.
The black-and-white Fender Stratocaster was one of several guitars Cobain broke while performing during Nirvana’s “Nevermind” era, the period around the release of the rock band’s groundbreaking album, according to Julien’s Auctions, which handled the sale.
It was signed by the three members of Nirvana and features a message from Cobain to his friend and fellow musician Mark Lanegan, to whom he reportedly gave the guitar in 1992.
The high price fetched by the guitar – which Cobain probably broke and then reassembled to use again, according to the auction house – is a sign of the musician’s enduring appeal, nearly three decades after his death by suicide at his home in Seattle.
Darren Julien, the president and CEO of Julien’s Auctions, said the success of the sale was a reflection of the increased rarity of items from Cobain or Nirvana, which he said was “one of the highest in terms of collectibility of all rock bands.”
Julien said the buyer, whose identity was not revealed publicly, is a fan of Nirvana based in the United States with a professional background in finance.
Cobain’s guitar was sold as part of an auction of over 1,200 items belonging to musicians including Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. It took place Friday through Sunday at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York.
Julien’s initially estimated that the guitar would sell for between $60,000 and $80,000. Offers started at $15,000, according to a bidding history on the auction house’s website, and closed at $596,900.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse ahead of the auction, Kody Frederick, director of gallery operations and digital production at Julien’s, said the smashed-up guitar was a testament to Cobain’s passionate style of music and the ’90s alternative rock scene.
“Kurt Cobain, when he was onstage, when he played, he was a machine. The man was angry, and you could feel that on stage. And you would feel that by the way he would treat his instruments,” Frederick told AFP this month.
“This broken element, in a strange way, from this broken musician, that really defined this rough and tumble era of music,” he added.
The guitar has several distinctive markings and characteristics, according to the auction house. It “features a white pickguard, Gotoh tuners” and “a Hot Rails pickup in the bridge position,” which is “a set-up Cobain favoured for live performance.” The message “Boddah Lives” is “scratched into the neck plate,” in an apparent reference to “Cobain’s childhood imaginary friend.”
The auction house said the guitar features “many marks and signs of use and abuse including chunks of wood missing from the bottom rear of the body.” Frederick told AFP that the guitar is no longer playable.
“Since this guitar has Cobain’s modifications for live performance and signs of wear that would indicate prolonged use, it is likely he did not simply smash and discard this particular instrument, but smashed and repaired it to use again,” Julien’s said.
Aside from the Nirvana members’ signatures, the body of the guitar also features a message from Cobain to Lanegan, who died last year, in which the musician misspelled his name: “Hell-o Mark! Love, Your Pal, Kurdt Kobain / Washed up rockstar.”
– THE WASHINGTON POST
