Kurt Cobains Guitar From MTV Unplugged Sold for Record $6 Million at Auction

August 2024 · 4 minute read

The guitar Kurt Cobain played during Nirvana‘s legendary 1993 “MTV Unplugged” session sold for a pretty penny on Saturday at an auction in Los Angeles.

Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E, which was originally purchased by the Nirvana singer at L.A.’s Voltage Guitars, went for a total of $6.01 million, breaking the record for the most expensive guitar ever sold. The record was previously held by a black Stratocaster belonging to Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, which sold for $3.95 million last year.

Cobain used the guitar in Nirvana’s famous “MTV Unplugged” set, which featured stripped-down renditions of classics including “Come As You Are,” “About A Girl” and “Dumb,” in addition to several covers of songs by David Bowie, Leadbelly and Meat Puppets. The performance was released after Cobain’s death as a live album, ultimately earning the band a Grammy in 1996 for best alternative music performance.

Related Stories

eye on football VIP+

Sports Is Traditional TV’s Hail Mary, Despite Pressure From Streaming

Harris, Trump

Google Explains Why Search for 'Where Can I Vote for Harris' Showed a Map While Similar Trump Search Didn't

Leading up to the auction, the guitar had already received four $1 million bids, according to the Julien’s Auctions website. On Saturday, it received three additional bids, one of which was the winning $6.01 million. The victorious bidder was Peter Freedman, founder of Rode Microphones, who was present at the event.

Popular on Variety

Included with the guitar is its original case adorned with a flyer for Poison Idea’s 1990 album “Feel the Darkness,” a half-used package of Martin guitar strings, three picks and a suede bag containing a silver spoon, fork and knife.

Titled “Music Icons,” this was Julien’s Auctions’ first live in-person event since December due to the coronavirus pandemic. Other Nirvana items in the auction included a signed “Nevermind” poster, which sold for $56,250; the camera, negatives and signed prints from Nirvana’s 1992 Spin magazine photoshoot, which sold for $35,200; and a handful of Nirvana all-access passes, which sold for $512 each.

Nirvana was just one of the music icons whose items were sold at the auction. Elvis Presley’s 1977 Lincoln Mark V Coupe went for $62,500, Johnny Cash’s Valencia acoustic guitar signed by The Highwaymen sold for $57,600 and Noel Gallagher’s handwritten lyrics for Oasis’ 1995 album “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?” were auctioned off for $22,400.

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXN8jqasrKGTZLumw9Jooq6qpGKwsK7AoqVmn6WewaK%2BjG9kpqGcobawuoyarJysmaS7brnTr2SupqChwqizxJ1kampjaYN1f5VtaGg%3D