A series auctions of thousands of objects belonging to Freddie Mercury has reached 40 million pounds sterling (46.5 million euros), a record for a collection of this kind, Sotheby’s auction house said this Friday. In April, when the auction was announced, Sotheby’s estimated that it would bring in at least six million pounds (more than 6.7 million euros).
All of the more than 1,400 lots found buyers, with more than 41,800 offers made by bidders, including 27,100 online, Sotheby’s said in a press release. Bidders came from 76 countries in Europe, North America and Latin America and buyers from 50 countries. Nearly 99% of the lots sold for a price higher than their high estimate, unlike the centerpiece of these event auctions, the artist’s piano, on which he composed almost everything from “Bohemian Rhapsody”.
We already knew it, the Yamaha quarter tail was sold for 1.742 million pounds sterling (2 million euros), a record for a composer’s piano, according to Sotheby’s, against an estimate of between two and three million pounds sterling (2.3 to 3.5 million euros ). Another piano of the singer, lacquered, sold for 444,500 pounds.
The manuscript of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was sold for 1.3 million pounds sterling (1.6 million euros). Trials of “We Are The Champions” went for 317,000 pounds (370,000 euros), just like those of “Don’t Stop Me Now”.
A collection that shows the singer’s eclectic tastes
Among the many costumes, the crown and cape worn by the artist during The “Magic Tour”, with which Queen filled stadiums in 1986, sold for 635,000 pounds sterling (740,000 euros), approximately ten times their estimate.
A painting by Pico, “Jacqueline and the Black Hat”, sold for 190,500 pounds (222,000 euros). Another by Marc Chagall, “The Judgment of Chloé”, 63,500 pounds (74,000 euros).
Freddie Mercury’s mustache comb, estimated at 400 pounds, sold for 152,000 pounds sterling (177,000 euros).
Before being scattered, the collection was brought together during a free exhibition in London, which welcomed 140,000 visitors, to which are added 10,000 others counting partial exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles or Hong Kong, according to the auction house.
The collection was put up for sale by Mary Austin, a close friend to whom Mercury was even engaged for a time and whom he had made his heir. Part of the proceeds from the auction must be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and Elton John Aids Foundation, two organizations involved in the fight against AIDS, which Freddie Mercury suffered from when he died in 1991 at the age of 45.
The complete collection offered for sale can still be consulted on the site from Sotheby’s.