Eric Clapton’s Fool guitar (left) and Kurt Cobain’s Skystang I guitar are displayed at the media preview for Julien’s “Played, worn, torn rock’n’roll iconic guitars and memorabilia” in Gardena, California, on Oct. 10, 2023. VALERIE MACON / AFP
LOS ANGELES—The guitar that the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain used during his last tour sold for more than $1.5 million, an auction house announced Friday, Nov. 17.
The American grunge icon played the sky-blue, left-handed Fender Mustang during the band’s In Utero tour, Julien’s Auctions said in a statement.
“Nirvana played their final show on March 1, 1994 in Munich, Germany and all available concert footage confirms that Cobain played this guitar that night,” the auction house said.
Cobain died by suicide in April 1994, aged 27 and at the height of his fame.
Julien’s listed the final sale price as $1,587,500.
The Mustang guitar was still intact, unlike many that Cobain destroyed on stage.
In May, a smashed-up black Fender Stratocaster of his fetched $595,000 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York.
On Thursday, Julien’s also sold a guitar belonging to Eric Clapton for $1.27 million.
Nicknamed “The Fool,” the Gibson SG is associated with the English musician’s time with the band Cream, where he produced one of rock’s most distinctive sounds.
Its personalized decoration, in a psychedelic style, makes the instrument one of the most easily recognizable in rock and a symbol of the “Summer of Love,” the counterculture movement of 1967 which marked a generation.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the two guitars will go to mental health charity Kicking the Stigma.
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