Sotheby’s has announced that it will auction off a large number of Freddie Mercury’s personal items later this year.
The significant collection of stage and personal outfits, music memorabilia, art and more has sat largely – in the 30 years since the Queen frontman’s untimely death in 1991 – undisturbed and well-looked-after at Mercury’s one-time home in London. Now though, many of Mercury’s valuables are – with the blessing and oversight of his close friend and confidant, Mary Austin – going up for sale.
Among those items is a 1975 Martin D-35 acoustic guitar, which – according to Sotheby’s – was likely the six-string that Mercury used to write and record Queen’s first US chart-topper, Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Though most well-known, instrumentally, as a pianist, Mercury was also very a capable guitarist.
“He was very good on the guitar, very unorthodox – all downstrokes,” Queen electric guitar hero Brian May told Guitar World in a 2019 interview. “He wrote the riff for Ogre Battle [from 1974’s Queen II]. I used to play it with up- and downstrokes, but he was all downstrokes. Imagine how fast his right hand was moving! He had a frenetic energy on the guitar, which came across very well in that song.
“He [also] played the rhythm on Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” May continued. “I wanted to sound as good as Freddie did on that record, which was damn good.”
The Martin – which comes with its original case – is thus far the most prominent guitar to crop up in the auction, though Sotheby’s is reportedly still cataloging (opens in new tab) the full contents of Mercury’s collection. Its estimated value is £30,000–50,000 (around $37,000 to $62,000).
The Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own collection will tour the world on exhibition this summer, before hitting the auction block – physically and online – in September.
For more info on the auction and exhibition itinerary, visit Sotheby’s (opens in new tab).
Incidentally, Sotheby’s was also the auction house that – earlier this month – organized the sale of Eddie Van Halen’s custom-built Hot for Teacher Kramer. Valued at between two and three million dollars, the guitar eventually sold for an astonishing $3,932,000, making it one of the most expensive guitars sold at auction.
