A guitar which was once smashed on stage by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was sold for $600,000 at an auction.
The busted black Fender Stratocaster which was signed by all Nirvana bandmembers, has sold for ten times the original estimate, with Julien’s Auctions originally estimating the guitar to sell for $60,000.
The smashed guitar was put back together, but is no longer playable, was sold as part of a three day auction, which also includes memorabilia from Elvis Presley, Bill Wyman, Eddie Van Halen, Freddie Mercury, and Janet Jackson.
It was an event which took place in front of a live audience at New York City’s Hard Rock Café, which concluded yesterday (Sunday May 21).
“astounding”
In the end, the infamous guitar which was smashed by Kurt Cobain, was sold for $595,000, with Julien’s Auctions describing this total as “astounding”.
“You can see here the break that took place as he slammed down the guitar, where the neck here kind of connects, as well as down here on the bottom where he slammed the guitar down”, Mr Kody Frederick of Julien’s Auctions said in a statement earlier this month.
Mr Frederick also added, “You can see here the break that took place as he slammed down the guitar, where the neck here kind of connects, as well as down here on the bottom where he slammed the guitar down”.
“This broken element, in a strange way, from this broken musician, that really defined this rough and tumble era of music”.
As mentioned, the guitar was signed by all three members of Nirvana including Kurt Cobain, before the band burst onto the music scene in the early 1990s.
The band’s hits, with many of them written by Cobain, include ‘Come As You Are’, ‘Lithium’ and their breakout track, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, a track which surpassed one billion Spotify streams in 2021.
Last November, another guitar used by Cobain on Nirvana’s first ever tour in 1989, sold for $400,000 at an auction. More here.
Kurt Cobain died tragically in April 1994, having struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues.
