For a few days in March, Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries felt less like an auction house and more like a public exhibition of 20th-century mythology. Fans came to see up close Kurt Cobain’s guitar, Jerry Garcia’s “Tiger,” John Lennon’s piano on “Sgt. Pepper,” and Ringo Starr’s “Ed Sullivan” drum kit. Then the sales began, and the otherwise museum-like display became louder, faster, and more competitive.
The Jim Irsay Collection brought in $94.5 million over four sales, making it the highest-grossing memorabilia auction ever. For every lot sold, the cumulative number was almost four times the low estimate. The series also set 28 world records.
Related articles
Many of these records focus on the high end, with instruments and manuscripts associated with classic figures in music and literature continuing to define the category. David Gilmour’s “Black Strat” led the way with a price of $14.55 million, setting a new benchmark for all guitars at auction. Jerry Garcia’s custom “Tiger” followed closely behind at $11.56 million, while Kurt Cobain’s Fender Mustang from the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video hit $6.9 million. All in all, Christie’s auction houses ranked among the top three most expensive guitars.
Mounted view of guitars owned by Prince (left) and Kurt Cobain (right) from the collection of Jim Israel at Christie’s.
Philip Wallack
The scope of these records goes beyond music. Jack Kerouac’s original typescript scroll on the road The work sold for $12.1 million, a record price for a literary manuscript. The upright piano used by John Lennon during his writing sessions Sgt. black pepper-era brought in $3.2 million, while Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics for “The Times They Are a-Changin'” brought in $2.5 million. Even outside of cultural classics, benchmarks have fallen: Secretariat’s saddle used in the 1973 Triple Crown sold for $1.52 million, setting a record for a horse racing item. There was also strong bidding on an Ali-Liston-era Muhammad Ali robe, which is part of a wider sports history collection that includes pieces related to Jackie Robinson and Wayne Gretzky, as well as the red Meade notebook in which Celeste Stallone scrawled ideas, plot points and dialogue for the first “Rocky” movie. They even have an original Golden Ticket from the 1971 children’s epic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. (Price $203,000; estimate $60,000 to $120,000.)
A drum set owned by Ringo Starr and part of the Jim Isray Collection at Christie’s.
Max Touhey | www.metouhey.com
Part of what makes this sale unique is that many items from the collection continue to move quickly after the hammer goes down. Within hours of the sale of Garcia’s “Tiger,” the guitar was back on the Beacon Theater stage, played live by Derek Trucks during a Tedeschi Trucks Band show, a reminder that at least some buyers view these pieces less as artifacts than as instruments with a second life.
The atmosphere in the room reportedly reflected that energy. There was thunderous applause after the big bid. The bidding wars for some lots lasted for more than 10 minutes. The basis for this sale is that these objects carry a well-known story but remain powerful when attached to the object itself.
This may be the most obvious takeaway: At a time when the rest of the market is focused on new things, this sale shows the enduring appeal of something already established. The Irsay Collection doesn’t ask buyers to guess. It provides them with artifacts tied to a moment that has been woven into our cultural history for decades, and the response suggests that for many collectors, that certainty still commands a premium.
