Freddie Mercury's piano fetches $2.1 million at Sotheby auction
Freddie Mercury's Yamaha baby grand piano was sold for £1.74 million ($2.2 million), a British music news outlet reported on Thursday. "The piano went up sale without a reserve price and was expected to fetch between £2 and £3m. It didn't quite hit that mark but still went for the tidy sum of £1.74m," Musicradar said.
- Art
- DPA
- Published Date: 03:48 | 07 September 2023
- Modified Date: 03:48 | 07 September 2023
A piano used by late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury to compose songs such as Bohemian Rhapsody has sold for a record £1.7 million ($2.1 million).
More than 1,400 of the star's possessions were sold for a total of £12.2 million at an auction run by Sotheby's in London on Wednesday.
Mercury bought the Yamaha Baby Grand Piano in 1975 after searching to find his "perfect piano" and later used it to develop other songs such as "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Somebody To Love."
Before the auction, Sotheby's said they expected the piano to sell for between £2 million and £3 million.
Other top-selling items included handwritten working lyrics for "Bohemian Rhapsody," which sold for £1.4 million, while Mercury's rainbow-coloured satin jacket sold for £203,200.
A silver snake bangle worn in the "Bohemian Rhapsody" video in 1975 sold for almost 100 times its estimate at £698,500, Sotheby's said.
Meanwhile, a sparkling silver sequined stage-worn catsuit worn by Mercury on tours in 1977 and 1979 was sold for £139,700.
The items came up for sale in the first of six auctions devoted to Mercury's never-before-seen private collection.
Sotheby's said a record 2,000 people from 61 countries registered to bid for the 59 lots on Wednesday, all of which found a buyer.
Sotheby's Europe chairman Oliver Barker said: "It has been a once-in-a-lifetime privilege for all of us at Sotheby's to celebrate the legend that is Freddie Mercury."
Auctioning of the treasured piano came a month after thousands of items from Mercury's beloved home – Garden Lodge in Kensington in west London – went on display as part of the Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own exhibition.
Overwhelmed by the response to the exhibition, Mercury's close friend Mary Austin decided the piano should be offered "without reserve" to open the possibility of bidding to a broader base of potential buyers.
Personal items from the collection will be sold across auctions in September.
Part of the money raised will go to the Elton John Aids Foundation, following Mercury's death in 1991 following health complications relating to Aids.