The Most Costly Guitars Ever Offered At Public sale

As another famous guitar recently went under the hammer this week, let’s take a look at the most expensive guitars ever sold at auction over time. 

The guitar used by former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler to record the famous opening riff to the band’s 1985 hit “Money for Nothing” had been expected to spark intense interest when it went up for auction as part of a massive sell-off of his instruments on January 31, 2024.

The original 1959 Les Paul Standard that Knopfler acquired from Bobby Tench of The Jeff Beck Group came with a guide price of GBP 500,000 at Christie’s auctioneers in London. It performed beyond expectation and achieved GBP 693,000. Overall,  Knopfler’s entire guitar collection sold for GBP 8,840,160.

In the wake of the impressive auction results, we look back on some other famous, most expensive guitars that have sold for millions of dollars.

Here are the four most expensive ever sold at auction.

[Hero and Featured Image: Ben Stansall / AFP©]

The Most Expensive Guitars Ever Sold at Auction

USD 6 million: Kurt Cobain’s Martin

The guitar that grunge-rock icon Cobain played during his legendary 1993 “MTV Unplugged” performance was sold in June 2020 in Los Angeles for USD 6 million, the record for a guitar.

It went to Peter Freedman, founder of RODE Microphones after a bidding war.

The retro acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E took centre stage during Nirvana’s “Unplugged” gig, which was turned into one of rock’s greatest live albums.

Just five months later Nirvana frontman Cobain committed suicide at the age of 27.

USD 4.7 million: Cobain’s Fender Mustang

Cobain also owned the second-most expensive guitar, a Fender Mustang used in the video of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in 1991.

Nirvana’s breakout song, which became a mosh pit classic, was an anthem for a generation of disaffected teenagers.

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The guitar was snapped up in May 2022 for USD 4.7 million by the owner of the Indianapolis Colts football team, Jim Irsay, joining a collection that includes guitars by Jimi Hendrix and Prince, among others.

USD 4 million: David Gilmour’s Fender Stratocaster

A Fender Stratocaster dubbed “Black Strat” that was used by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour on “The Dark Side of the Moon” sold for nearly USD 4 million in June 2019, a record at the time.

It was sold, also to Irsay, at a charity sale at Christie’s that netted USD 21.5 million for the environmental NGO ClientEarth.

USD 3.9 million: Eddie Van Halen’s Kramer

Eddie Van Halen’s custom-made Kramer electric guitar, which featured in the iconic music video for Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher”, sold for USD 3.9 million at Sotheby’s in April 2023.

This story is published via AFP Relaxnews.