Someone just paid $14.5 m for a rock star guitar at auction - a new record
The late Jim Irsay's impressive collection was just sold at Christies. Here are the highlights:
David Gilmour’s Black Fender Stratocaster – $14,550,000 (Irsay paid about $4 million for it)
Jerry Garcia’s “Tiger” guitar – $11,560,000
Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Fender Mustang – $6,907,000
Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E – $6,010,000
Eric Clapton’s MTV Unplugged Martin 000-42 – $4,101,000
Eddie Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher Kramer – $3,932,000
Eric Clapton’s “The Fool” 1964 Gibson SG Standard – $3,003,000
John Lennon’s Framus Hootenanny 12-string – $2,857,000
Eddie Van Halen’s 1982 Kramer – $2,734,000
“Reach Out to Asia” Fender Stratocaster – $2,700,000
As I guitarist myself, I can't say I get this. These are record setting prices. Are there people who will pay MORE for these at a later date? Are they all boomers?
** Edited by Baltimore Hokie at 3/13/2026, 1:53:22 PM
9 Replies
4mo
(In response to this post by Baltimore Hokie)
4mo
I'm not sure who the money is behind it but it's a group that keeps the guitars and loans them out to musicians. They have several of Jerry's Doug Irwin made guitars. Warren Haynes was playing Jerry's Wolf recently and it's part of this collection.
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
4mo
(In response to this post by Victor Tango)
4mo
Link:
So crazy
(In response to this post by Victor Tango)
E
EDGEMAN
4mo
If I was a multi-millionaire who wanted to blow a bunch of money on guitars...well, I probably wouldn't. If I wanted a guitar, buy a really nice one that wasn't played by a "superstar" and save millions...lol. Heck, you can even send it to a craftsman to have them copy the superstar's guitar, but I would have that craftsman put something somewhere to distinguish it as NOT being the original.
(In response to this post by Baltimore Hokie)