Kurt Cobain’s guitar from Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit video sells for £3.5million

Virgin Radio

23 May 2022, 09:28

It featured in one of the most iconic videos of the grunge movement in the 1990s, and now Kurt Cobain’s guitar has been sold at auction for a huge amount of money.

You remember the video; the school gym, the janitor mopping the floor, the cheerleaders, and, of course, Nirvana performing, as a pep rally descends further and further into chaos. 

The left-handed 1969 “Lake Placid Blue” Fender Mustang, which frontman Kurt Cobain played in the clip, went under the hammer as one of the star attractions of Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons event over the weekend (May 20th-22nd) at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York and online. 

When it was previously announced that the six-string was up for sale, Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions said: “This is one of the most iconic guitars ever to come to the auction block, this is the blue Mustang Fender guitar, one of Kurt Cobain's favourite guitars of all time.”

The price range of $600,000 to $800,000 for the guitar was, according to Nolan, “a very conservative auction estimate.” And he wasn’t wrong! 

The winning bid of a whopping $4,500,000 (approximately £3,500,000) came from Jim Irsay, owner of American football team Indianapolis Colts. 

In a statement, Irsay said: “I am thrilled to preserve and protect another piece of American culture that changed the way we looked at world,” 

The guitar had stayed with the Cobain family since the artist’s death in 1994. And they are set to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale to the Colts’ Kicking The Stigma campaign about mental health awareness. “The fact that a portion of the proceeds will go toward our effort to kick the stigma surrounding mental health makes this acquisition even more special to me,” Irsay said.

The Indianapolis Colts’ owner also has instruments previously belonging to Elvis Presley, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Jerry Garcia, Prince, Les Paul and Bob Dylan in his collection.

Now that's a collection we'd love to have a look at!