By Elliot Smith - CNBC
A mangled Fender Stratocaster guitar from Kurt Cobain, the late leader of the group Nirvana, sold at auction for $595,900, more than ten times its original estimate.
The Nirvana frontman's iconic left-handed electric guitar broke while grunge pioneers were recording their album Nevermind in the early nineties. It was expected to sell for between $60,000 and $80,000 at the auction Julien's held over the weekend at New York's Hard Rock Cafe.
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It bears the signatures of the three members of Nirvana — Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl — along with an inscription by Cobain addressed to the late Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan. According to Julien's Auctions, Cobain gifted the guitar to Lanegan during Nirvana's Nevermind tour in 1992.
Cobain, who took his own life in 1994 at age 27, was famous for his frenzied performances and trashed several Stratocasters during his influential career.
American musician Kurt Cobain's mangled Fender Stratocaster auctioned at Julien's Auctions in Gardena, California, on May 2, 2023.Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Nirvana's handwritten track list from the band's 1991 debut "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also sold at the same auction Saturday for $50,800, twelve times its original estimate.
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The guitar Cobain played during a legendary acoustic concert on MTV Unplugged in 1993, just five months before his death, sold two years ago for six million dollars.
Throughout the two-day Julien's auction, a wealth of musical memorabilia was sold, including guitars played by Bono and Eddie Van Halen, and the jacket from Michael Jackson's Dangerous world tour.