David Gilmour’s Guitars Sell for Record $21.5 Million, “Black Strat” for $3.97 Million
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The Pink Floyd star David Gilmour has sold the most valuable collection of musical instruments ever auctioned. The New York Christie’s auction in aid of the climate-crisis charity ClientEarth totaled $21.5milion, including Gilmour’s “Black Strat, whichDavid Gilmour’s Guitars Sell for Record $21.5 Million, “Black Strat” for $3.97 Million
The Pink Floyd star David Gilmour has sold the most valuable collection of musical instruments ever auctioned. The New York Christie’s auction in aid of the climate-crisis charity ClientEarth totaled $21.5milion, including Gilmour’s “Black Strat, which made $3.97 million, a record for any guitar.This 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster was Gilmour’s main performance and recording instrument. It was used on Pink Floyd’s best-selling albums such as “The Dark Side of The Moon,” “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall” as well as his solo material. The band has now sold more than 250 million records worldwide.Gilmour bought the black guitar in New York in 1970 to replace he had only had for a few weeks and which was stolen in New Orleans during a tour. The replacement is perhaps best known for his extended solo on the song “Comfortably Numb.”Christie’s said there were more than 2,000 registered bidders from 66 countries and an average of 20 registrants for each of the 126 guitars on offer, all of which sold. Gilmour said that he could always buy replacements because they were the tools of his trade.Gilmour’s Martin D-35 sold for $1,095,000 — an auction record for a C.F. Martin guitar. It had been estimated at $10,000 to $20,000 and featured on tracks such as “Wish You Were Here.”A 1954 White Fender Stratocaster, with a serial number of 001, also surpassed its estimate. It had been seen as making $100,000 to $150,000 and sold for $1.8 million. This had been used on several tracks such as “Another Brick in the Wall (Parts 2 and 3).”There were also records for a Gibson Les Paul at $447,000, and for a Gretsch at $447,000.The “Black Strat” and Martin D-35 were both bought by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, who tweeted to say he had made the purchases. He spent $5.25 million, about a quarter of the auction’s takings.More than 12,000 fans booked hour-long time slots at the tour stops in London, Los Angeles and New York to see the guitars before the sale.“The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible,” Gilmour said before the sale. “As Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist said in a speech earlier this year ‘Either we choose to go on as a civilization, or we don’t.’ The choice really is that simple, and I hope that the sale of these guitars will help ClientEarth in their cause to use the law to bring about real change. We need a civilized world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”The eight-hour sale surpassed Eric Clapton’s guitar collection which sold in 1999 and 2004 for $12.5 million in total.Gilmour joined Pink Floyd at about the time that the original singer Syd Barrett left. https://www.blouinartinfo.com/ Founder: Louise Blouin Read more