Busted Kurt Cobain Guitar Goes for $100,000
An unidentified private collector bought a smashed guitar once owned by the deceased Kurt Cobain for $100,000. This is the second highest sale for a piece of Kurt Cobain memorabilia, according to British broker Helen Hall. The lucky seller of the fragments was Sluggo of the punk bands The Grannies and Hullaboloo.
The splinted Fender guitar had been on display at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. The curator of the Project, Jacob McMurray, confirmed the sale of the pieces on Tuesday. Of the guitar McMurray said: “It’s really cool-looking because it’s smashed and held together with duct tape and Kurt Cobain wrote on it.”
Sluggo says he obtained the guitar during Nirvana’s first U.S. tour, and that he traded the broken Fender for a working guitar. According to McMurray, Cobain had been near broke at the time, and had smashed the guitar at a show in New Jersey.
Cobain had spent the night at Sluggo’s apartment the day the trade was made. Though Sluggo readily auctioned off the piece(s), he said he hoped that the buyer would allow the former guitar to be displayed in an exhibit he’s planning for 2010, because “there’s not a huge amount of broken Nirvana guitars out there.”
The record for Cobain collecting stands at $131,000 for a whole Mosrite Gospel Mark IV guitar.
Yeah! I won a broken guitar.
I don’t understand why people buy this shit! It’s a broken guitar!! Who cares who used to play it and then threw a tandrum and broke it! It’s still bloody broke.
It’s like when someone drops around your house and you say “Awww man! I have a guitar that Kurt Cobain used to play” and they are like “WHAT? Whoah!! Can I see” and you say “sure….”.
You let them see and they are like “Ohhh please let me play it” and you say “Nah – its broke. You can’t.” – and they say “Thats a bit shit.”
Nostalgia buddy!
Knowing that what you are holding was once held by someone you hold in high esteem is a very nice feeling indeed.