Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour’s 1969 Fender Stratocaster, the Black Strat, fetched $14.6 million at Christie’s in New York on Thursday.
David Gilmour used the instrument to record Pink Floyd’s most iconic albums, including The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.
The sale price of roughly £10.9 million makes it the most expensive guitar ever sold.
An art handler holds David Gilmour’s 1969 black Fender Stratocaster during a Christie’s preview in London. (Image: NQ)
Gilmour, who lives in West Sussex, played the legendary Fender on every band album between 1970 and 1983.
Bidding for the piece of memorabilia lasted 21 minutes before an unnamed buyer secured it.
Auctioneers had originally estimated the instrument would sell for a maximum of $4 million.
The guitar was part of a collection owned by American billionaire Jim Irsay, who died in 2025.
Julien Pradels, president of Christie’s Americas, said: “Lot after lot, we felt like we were making history.
“The Irsay sale did justice to the brilliance of the collector, and the monumental pieces he brought together – iconic objects that tell the story of our culture and our times.”
File photo of Pink Floyd musician David Gilmour. (Image: NQ)
It smashed the previous record set by a guitar played by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.
Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E, played during his MTV Unplugged performance, sold for $6 million in 2020.
Another of his guitars, a blue Fender Mustang from the Smells Like Teen Spirit video, fetched $6.9 million at the same event.
Other highlights from the 44-item auction included a piano once owned by John Lennon, which sold for £2.5 million.
This is believed to be the highest price ever paid for an item of Beatles memorabilia.
A custom-built guitar belonging to Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead reached £8.8 million.
Ringo Starr’s drum kit sold for £1.8 million, and a trumpet used by Miles Davis went for £1.2 million.
In total, the collection of rock and sporting memorabilia fetched a combined total of $84 million.
David Gilmour’s Hove seafront mansion, Medina House (Image: NQ)
The proceeds from the Irsay estate highlight a life spent preserving the artefacts of the 20th century.
The Black Strat was last sold publicly on June 20, 2019, when Gilmour auctioned 126 guitars at Christie’s to raise $21 million for charity, with proceeds going to environmental law group ClientEarth.
Irsay bought the Black Strat in that 2019 sale for $3.975 million, then a world auction record for any guitar.
David Gilmour is famously the owner of Medina House on the Hove seafront, which he and his wife built in 2020, before promptly putting it up for sale just two years later.
The house has remained on sale ever since, with the asking price being reduced multiple times.
Source link
[Featured]
[Just In]
