Topline
A guitar smashed onstage by the late Kurt Cobain during Nirvana’s first tour is up for sale next week, after another of Cobain’s guitars used in a legendary Nirvana music video fetched $4.5 million at auction earlier this year.
Guitars once owned by Cobain—who died in 1994—are among the most coveted in music memorabilia.
Key Facts
The guitar is expected to sell for between $200,000 and $400,000 when it goes to auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City on November 11, Julien’s Auction said.
Cobain used the 1973 Fender Mustang during two 1989 shows in Chicago and Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and during the second show, he smashed the guitar during the band’s finale performance of the song “Blew.”
Smashing guitars on stage was becoming one of Cobain’s signature moves, but the Nirvana front man had soon run out of guitars after smashing two in just a few days on tour.
Cobain later traded the damaged guitar to Sluggo Cawley from the band Hullabaloo, whom Nirvana stayed with on tour, writing on the guitar “Yo Sluggo, thanks for the trade. If it’s illegal to Rock and Roll, then throw my ass in jail,” drawing two flowers on the pickguard and signing off with “Nirvana.”
In exchange, Cawley gave Cobain a smashed Gibson SG that Cobain repaired and played onstage before smashing it again, according to Julien’s Auctions.
Before being put up for auction, the duct tape-repaired Mustang was previously on display at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, now named MoPOP Museum of Pop Culture, between 2007 and 2008.
In 2008, the Mustang sold at auction for $100,000, which at the time was the second-highest price ever paid for Cobain memorabilia.
Key Background
Guitars once owned by Cobain—who died in 1994—are among the most coveted in music memorabilia, fetching millions of dollars at auction. Earlier this year, billionaire Jim Irsay purchased the guitar used by Cobain in the 1991 Nirvana music video for the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for $4.5 million. Julien’s Auctions estimated the guitar would sell for between $600,000 and $800,000.
Big Number
$6 million. That’s how much the most valuable of Kurt Cobain’s guitars—a Martin D-18E—sold for in 2020. It was the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. Cobain played the guitar during Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance in New York, which was one of the band’s last gigs before Cobain’s death and later won a 1995 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance.
Further Reading
Kurt Cobain’s Guitar From Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ Music Video Up For Auction (Forbes)
Smashed Guitar That Reportedly Led To Oasis’ Breakup Heads To Auction (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/11/02/kurt-cobains-smashed-guitar-heading-to-auction-next-week/