Following the record-breaking Freddie Mercury sale last year, the auction house is putting up more music and film lots
You’ll soon be able to get your hands on pieces of pop culture history as Sotheby’s is hosting a mega auction at the end of August, featuring iconic instruments and artefacts from Hollywood movies. The Popular Culture auction, the first of its kind for Sotheby’s, will include a Steinway grand piano from Abbey Road Studios, used in the recording of tracks by Amy Winehouse, Lady Gaga, Pink Floyd and Paul McCartney; a VOX electric guitar played extensively by Prince during his 3RDEYEGIRL era; and a trio of guitars owned and played by Noel Gallagher, an Epiphone Les Paul Standard guitar used on ‘Supersonic’, an 1980 Gibson Flying V (previously owned by Johnny Marr) used on ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’, and a Epiphone EA-250 played on stage.
There’ll also be a collection of items, including a handwritten letter, a handwritten questionnaire and signed material, from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Bed-in For Peace’ protest in Amsterdam in March 1969. Film fans will have as much to lust over, with an original pair of red ballet slippers from The Red Shoes; a rhino-riding gladiator costume from Gladiator II; and a box-set of two Omega ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ 50th anniversary Seamaster Diver 300M model watches from the James Bond producers also going under the hammer.
Bidding opens at 2pm on Thurs 29th August and the online auction will run for two weeks, with an accompanying exhibition at the New Bond Street galleries from Mon 9th – Thurs 12th September so you can see the lots before they get sold. Fair warning, the estimates on these lots are high – we’re talking between £60,000 – £80,000 for Noel Gallagher’s Les Paul and upwards of £150,000 for the Steinway piano.
Key Information
Dates | Auction runs Thurs 29th August – Thurs 12th September 2024, exhibition runs Mon 9th – Fri 12th September 2024
Address | 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA
For more information | sothebys.com