What are the most expensive musical items sold at auction, as Freddie Mercury’s piano fetches £1.7m?

Freddie Mercury’s Yamaha baby grand piano has been sold for £1.74m as thousands of his possessions were auctioned on Wednesday night, amid criticism by some fans and Brian May. The piano, on which he composed some of the group’s biggest hits, went for £1,742,000, which included costs, although it had been expected to fetch up to £3m.

The Sotheby’s auction included a number of items previously owned by the late Queen lead singer, including a manuscript for “Bohemian Rhapsody” fetching £1.38m and a “Queen No 1” gold Cartier brooch sold for £165,000. 

The Guardian reported that over 6,000 people watched the sale unfold online but with many in dismay over the perceived “fire sale” of some of Mercury’s most treasured items. Queen guitarist Brian May took to social media to post “Freddie’s most intimate personal effects, and writings that were part of what we shared for so many years, will go under the hammer, to be knocked down to the highest bidder and dispersed forever.” 

“I can’t look. To us, his closest friends and family, it’s too sad.”

One of the more contentious items as part of the Sotheby’s auction seems to be a garden door scrawled in graffiti that sold for more than £400,000 including costs. The door is coated in scribbled tributes to Mercury from fans all over the world in several languages and over several decades, with fans believing the item still belongs in the public domain as a memorial to the late singer.

But where does Freddy Mercury’s piano place in the list of the most expensive musical items that have sold at auction? Let’s take a look at some of those items, for better or for worse, including the winning bid that earned the auction member the item.

What are the most expensive music items sold at auction?

All figures given have been converted from US dollars to GBP and have been adjusted for inflation.

Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Guitar: £6.43 million

Considered one of the most expensive musical items sold a auction, the iconic acoustic guitar that the late Kurt Cobain used during the group’s hallowed ‘MTV Unplugged’ set fetched £6.43 million in 2020 at Julien’s Auctions. Pre-bids for the item reached $1 million USD before the auction officially went live, demonstrating how much interest there is in picking up a tangible item that the grunge musician used.

Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony Score: £6.42 million

Selling for a shade less than Cobain’s guitar, Sotheby’s auction for Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony score was a significant event in the world of classical music and collectables back in 2016. Gustav Mahler was a renowned Austrian composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, and his Second Symphony, also known as the "Resurrection Symphony," is one of his most famous and monumental works.

The score for Mahler's Second Symphony is an original manuscript that was handwritten by the composer himself. It contains his notations, markings, and insights into the composition, making it a priceless artefact for music enthusiasts and scholars.

Michael Jackson & Bubbles Statue: £5.9 million

Despite being a bizarre item for auction, this kitschy statuette managed to fetch the princely sum of £5.9 million when it went to auction at Sotheby’s in 2016. What makes the statuette special is who designed it - renowned US artist Jeff Koons, immortalizing the King of Pop in gilt porcelain. 

Though it fetched a huge amount at the Sotheby’s auction this time around, the statuette was originally sold at auction for a mere $250,000 years before Michael Jackson’s paraphernalia became a premium.

Reach out to Asia Stratocaster Guitar: £3 million

The "Reach Out to Asia Stratocaster Guitar" is a custom-designed Fender Stratocaster electric guitar that was sold at a charity auction to raise funds for disaster relief efforts following the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami that occurred on December 26, 2004. This natural disaster was one of the deadliest in recorded history, causing widespread devastation across several countries.

The unique aspect of this guitar was its distinctive artwork. It featured hand-painted artwork by various renowned artists and celebrities, including members of the rock band Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, as well as Bryan Adams, Mick Jagger, and Eric Clapton, among others. Each artist contributed their own design to the guitar, making it a one-of-a-kind collector's item.

John Lennon’s ‘Love Me Do’ Guitar: £2.5 million

The Gibson J-160E guitar used by John Lennon during the recording of The Beatles' "Love Me Do" was sold by Julien's Auctions on November 7 2015. The guitar's expected value at auction was around £500,000, making its final selling price significantly higher than anticipated. This iconic instrument was originally used by Lennon in 1962 but had mysteriously disappeared in 1963, believed to be lost forever.

The guitar's remarkable journey to the auction block began when amateur musician John McCaw purchased it for "a few hundred dollars" in San Diego during the 1970s. McCaw noticed similarities between his guitar and Lennon's while reading a book by Beatles expert Andy Babiuk. He approached Babiuk to authenticate the piece of memorabilia. Initially cautious about fan approaches, Babiuk verified that the guitar's serial number matched Lennon's original, confirming its authenticity and historical significance.