A guitar used by David Gilmour to record the iconic solos and riffs on six Pink Floyd albums has sold for $14.55 million, becoming the most expensive guitar to be sold at auction.
The guitar was sold on Thursday to an online bidder in a 21-minute bidding war, said Angela Montefinise, a spokeswoman for the auction house Christie’s, which ran the sale.
The price broke a previous record of $6.01 million, which was set in 2020 by the buyer of the Martin D-18E that Kurt Cobain played on Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” performance months before his death.
Mr. Gilmour purchased the guitar, a black Fender Stratocaster, in 1970 from Manny’s Music, the famed instrument store in Midtown Manhattan, according to Christie’s.
Its body bears scratches and chipped paint from decades as his favored guitar; Mr. Gilmour used it for every Pink Floyd recording and many performances from 1972 to 1983. During that period, the English band created its five seminal albums: “The Dark Side of the Moon,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Animals,” “The Wall” and “The Final Cut.”
He laid the guitar aside for two decades in favor of another Stratocaster, according to Christie’s. He returned to it in 2014 to record Pink Floyd’s last album, “The Endless River.”
The guitar was part of an auction at Christie’s from the collection of Jim Irsay, a billionaire who owned the Indianapolis Colts until his death last year.
Mr. Irsay, a music lover, amassed an extensive collection of pop culture memorabilia, including several guitars owned by Mr. Cobain, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan. He bought Mr. Gilmour’s guitar in 2019 at Christie’s for just over $5 million, Ms. Montefinise said.
Three other auctions from Mr. Irsay’s collection are scheduled for this month.
Mr. Gilmour’s guitar was not the only one to set sale records on Thursday, according to Christie’s. A guitar that Mr. Cobain used in the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” sold for $6.9 million, setting a price record for one of his guitars. A custom guitar owned by Jerry Garcia, the lead guitarist and vocalist for the Grateful Dead, pulled in a record-breaking sum for Mr. Garcia’s memorabilia. “The Tiger,” as it was known, sold for $11.56 million.
Isabella Kwai contributed reporting.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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