The 1959 Martin D-18E guitar that Kurt Cobain, Nirvana frontman, played during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged concert in 1993 has just sold for $6.01 million (£4.9m) in an auction last Saturday, June 20, 2020.
The concert was held just five months before Cobain was found dead in his home in Seattle in an apparent suicide. He was 27 years old then.
According to Deadline, the sale has set a record as it sold for 50 percent higher than all of the guitars that have been auctioned so far.
The guitar that sold for a record high $3.95 million previously was the Stratocaster owned by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour.
Cobain's guitar was expected to fetch between $1 million to $2 million, and according to BBC, the bid started at $1 million in Los Angeles.
Shelling out the $6 million for Cobain’s guitar is Peter Freedman, the founder of Rode Microphones.
Freedman said that the chance of buying Cobain's guitar was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that he plans to take the prized guitar on a tour worldwide. The proceeds that the tour would earn, Freedman said, would be used to support the performing arts.
The guitar came with a case decorated by Cobain with the poster of Nirvana's Poison Idea's 1990 album and some other personal items.
Aside from Cobain's guitar, other items related to Nirvana's MTV Unplugged concert that also got sold during the auction were a set list, and a paper typed with the lyrics to David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World, which Nirvana also played in that concert.
Nirvana was at the height of its popularity when Cobain committed suicide. Other members of the band at the time of Cobain’s death were David Grohl, Pat Smear and Krist Novoselic.
