Freddie Mercury’s piano auctioned for $2 million

the piano of Freddy Mercury was sold this Wednesday in London for more than US$ 2 million, as part of an auction organized by Sotheby’s of thousands of objects that belonged to the charismatic singer of the group What in.

The price reached is lower than the estimate published by the auction house, which was between 2 and 3 million pounds sterling. The Yamaha piano was purchased in 1975 by Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991 at age 45, and was used to compose almost all of his best songs.

The manuscript of the famous Queen hit “Bohemian Rhapsody”written by Mercury, was also sold Wednesday night at auction for 1.379 million British pounds ($1.7 million).

These 15 pages written in ballpoint pen on sheets bearing the brand name of a now-defunct airline, “British Midland Airways”, reveal the process behind the creation of this success, which could have been named “Mongolian Rhapsody”.

Sotheby’s had published an initial estimate of between £800,000 and £1.2 million. Buyers from around the world bid on thousands of items that once belonged to the charismatic Queen frontman, from manuscripts of the band’s greatest hits to paintings and furniture.

The session began at the rhythm of “We will Rock You”. The first lot for sale was the gate of Garden Lodge, Mercury’s London home. Covered in fan graffiti, the green door sold for 412,750 pounds ($516,000), smashing the initial estimate of between 15,000 and 25,000 pounds.

Paintings by Chagall, Dalí and Picasso that adorned his house were also auctioned, in addition to the last painting he acquired a month before his death, an oil painting by James Jacques Joseph Tissot.

auction lover

All items for sale are from Garden Lodge, Mercury’s home in West London. The collection was put up for sale by Mary Austin, a close friend who became Mercury’s fiancée.

“Mary Austin has lived with and cared for the collection for more than three decades”Gabriel Heaton, a specialist in books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, told AFP. Mercury “was not interested in having a museum of his life, but he loved auctions,” to the point of being a frequent visitor to Sotheby’s sales, Heaton said.

Austin thinks the singer would have “loved” this sale, he added. Some 1,469 lots were auctioned at the London auction house, whose façade was decorated for the occasion with a huge mustache.

Some objects reveal other facets of Mercury, such as his passion for cats and Japan, as indicated by his collection of kimonos and prints.

mustache comb

Also up for auction alongside his personal Polaroid photos were Mercury’s wackier stage outfits, including his Hawaiian shirt and Superman tank top.

Other items up for auction included the most select bottles from his cellar, such as some Dom Perignons, along with more intimate items such as a book of poetry with personal annotations and a mustache comb.

Board games were also featured, including a Scrabble, which Mercury excelled at. Prior to the sale, the auction house displayed the collection to the public for a month.

When the auction was announced in April, Sotheby’s estimated the lots would fetch at least £6m. Part of the proceeds will be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, two organizations involved in the fight against AIDS.

Sotheby’s says it is the largest collection by volume of a cultural icon to be auctioned since Elton John’s in 1988, when 2,000 lots sold for a total of £4.8m.