Other Nirvana items sold at the auction included a signed Nevermind poster ($56,250, was estimated between $6,000 – $8,000), the camera, original negatives and signed original prints, and the copyright from Nirvana’s 1992 SPIN magazine photoshoot ($35,200, which was estimated between $10,000 – $20,000), and Nirvana all-access passes ($512 each). Chiate was also present at today’s auction. Cobain added Bartolini 3AV electric pickups to the soundhole and the nut was recut to be played left-handed. Chiate says he picked up the Martin for $3,500 at a pawn shop in the South and sold it to Cobain for $5,000 when Cobain visited Chiate’s guitar shop several days in a row. (Credit: Pamela Chelin)Īt a private preview at Julien’s on Monday afternoon, Voltage Guitar owner Lloyd Chiate, who sold the guitar to Cobain in 1993, stopped by to see the guitar up close and personal before it was sold. The DVD, which includes the original broadcast, songs taped during the show’s rehearsal and two cuts omitted from the original broadcast, was released in 2007. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts when it was released seven months after Cobain’s death, and won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance. MTV Unplugged Live in New York debuted at no.

Cobain, wearing his famed ratty green cardigan (which Julien’s auctioned for a record-setting $334,000 last October), a long-sleeved button-down shirt over a Frightwig t-shirt, jeans and Converse sneakers, had the set decorated with Stargazer lilies and black candles and sang 14 songs including Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” “About A Girl,” and “Dumb,” a variety of covers including David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” and several Meat Puppets songs including “Lake of Fire.” At the end of the intimate, raw, powerful and haunting set, Cobain returned his guitar to its stand and walked away, leaving the guitar center-stage. 16, 1993, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged was the first Unplugged to be filmed in one take. That doesn’t work.”Īs the only guitar Cobain played at Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged session and used at a handful of live tour dates including Club Lingerie and the Forum in Los Angeles, it had attracted four $1 million online bids during the week leading up to the auction.Īlso Read Watch Red Hot Chili Peppers Play 90 Seconds of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ We’re going to raise awareness and raise money. I’m going to use this to tour it around the world to lobby governments to start proper funding for mental health, medical, wages lost, all the stuff that’s gone. “Musicians also supported my family for decades. “My parents were in the music industry, the arts industry before I was born,” Freedman told SPIN after the auction. Peter Freedman with Kurt Cobain’s guitar at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills (Credit: Pamela Chelin)

The previous record-holder was a Stratocaster owned by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour that fetched $3.95 million. The $6.01 million is a new world record for a guitar at an auction. Due to the pandemic, it was a smaller than usual group at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, but excitement still crackled through the air as spectators and bidders, held their breath, bit their lips and sat on the edges of their seats as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s famed 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar (and its vintage hardshell case affixed with baggage claim tags and stickers), the featured highlight of the two-day auction and prominently displayed on stage all afternoon, sold for an incredible $6.01 million to Peter Freedman from Rode Microphones who was in attendance.

Kurt cobain unplugged guitar