The cardigan Kurt Cobain wore during Nirvana’ appearance on MTV: Unplugged has been sold at auction.
Auction house Julien’s held a rock memorabilia auction yesterday (November 7) with John Lennon’s acoustic guitar among the items available. As reported, that item sold for over £1.6m.
Cobain’s cardigan was expected to make up to $80,000 but in fact sold for $140,800 (£93,000). Prior to the auction, Julien’s described the cardigan as “A blend of acrylic, mohair and Lycra with five-button closure (one button absent), with two exterior pockets, a burn hole and discoloration near left pocket and discoloration on right pocket.”
JUST SOLD for $140,800, Kurt Cobain's sweater from Nirvana's MTV Unplugged appearance! #Auction #Nirvana #MTV pic.twitter.com/kZYMpLHcyi
— Juliens Auctions (@JuliensAuctions) November 7, 2015
Other items sold at the auction were the jacket Michael Jackson wore to Elizabeth Taylor’s wedding ($24,320), an Elvis Presley jacket worn on stage in 1972 ($59,375), a 1965 baseball autographed by The Beatles ($100,000), Elvis Presley’s gold leaf grand piano ($610,000) and a a drum head used by Ringo Starr of The Beatles for the band’s appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 ($2,050,000).
A ‘new’ Cobain album ‘Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings’ will be released on November 13. The 31-track deluxe record also comes as a 13-track standard edition. A 7-inch featuring Cobain covering The Beatles’ ‘And I Love Her’ will also be released on December 4.
Defending his decision to release an album of material recorded by Cobain prior to his death in 1994, director Brett Morgen said: “Just like ‘The Bootleg Series’ furthers your understanding of Bob Dylan’s process, I find that ‘Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings’ furthers not just our understanding of his process but represents yet another angle, another side of Kurt — an artistic outlet that he was not necessarily able to work with in the context of a three-piece band.
Morgen sifted through the extensive Cobain archives for home recordings and rare tracks while curating the album, which includes solo demos of Nirvana songs ‘Been A Son’ and ‘Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle’.