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In an unparalleled sale at Sotheby’s Auction House in London, critical artifacts belonging to the late Freddie Mercury, the illustrious frontman of the iconic rock band Queen, were auctioned off to a record-breaking 2,000 registered bidders from 61 countries. Among the most prized acquisitions were Mercury’s Yamaha baby grand piano, which sold for a staggering £1,742,000 ($2,198,927), and the original 15-page manuscript of the groundbreaking song “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which fetched £1,379,000 ($1,740,712).
The baby grand piano holds a unique place in rock history. Acquired by Mercury in 1975, it was the instrument he used to compose the majority of his most enduring hits. Auctioneer Oliver Barker indicated that Mercury undertook a meticulous six-month search to identify “the ideal instrument to bring to life” his musical compositions. Barker described the handwritten lyrics of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” replete with pencil and ballpoint pen annotations, as a “modern cultural icon,” revealing that the working title was initially “Mongolian Rhapsody.”
For this special occasion, Sotheby’s facade was adorned with a sizable moustache, paying homage to Mercury’s signature look. The auction included over 1,400 lots of Mercury-related memorabilia, from furniture to paintings and smaller collectibles. The entrance door to Mercury’s Garden Lodge home in west London, upon which fans have scribbled tributes, fetched a surprisingly high £412,750, far exceeding its pre-estimated range of £15,000-25,000.
Remarkably, a portion of the auction’s proceeds will be allocated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John Aids Foundation, two organizations committed to combating AIDS. Before the auction commenced, Elton John, a close friend of Mercury, paid tribute in a message read by Barker, stating, “He was kind, generous and funny, and it is a tragedy that AIDS took him from the world much too soon.”
The auction also featured artwork by luminaries such as Chagall, Dali and Picasso, which once adorned Mercury’s residence, as well as the last painting he acquired — a piece by James Jacques Joseph Tissot — a month before his untimely death from AIDS in 1991.
Mary Austin, Mercury’s one-time fiancée and lifelong friend, was responsible for offering this monumental collection for sale. According to Gabriel Heaton, a books and manuscripts specialist at Sotheby’s, Mercury had a fondness for auctions and was a regular attendee of Sotheby’s sales. Austin believes that Mercury would have “loved” this auction, emphasizing that she had been the custodian of the collection for more than three decades.
The auction stands as one of the most voluminous collections of a cultural icon to go under the hammer since Elton John’s 1988 sale, which had 2,000 lots and totaled £4.8 million. Sotheby’s had initially estimated that this auction could raise at least £6 million, setting a new benchmark in the realm of auctions dedicated to cultural icons.
With AFP
