A series of auctions of thousands of items that belonged to Freddie Mercury have reached 40 million pounds sterling (46.5 million euros), a record for a collection of this kind, the auction house Sotheby’s announced on Friday .
All of the more than 1,400 lots found buyers, with more than 41,800 offers made by bidders, including 27,100 online, Sotheby’s said in a press release. Nearly 99% of the lots sold for a price higher than their high estimate, unlike the centerpiece of these auction events, the artist’s piano, on which he composed almost everything from Bohemian Rhapsody. This Yamaha quarter grand was sold for 1.742 million pounds sterling (2 million euros), a record for a composer’s piano, according to Sotheby’s, against an estimate of between two and three million pounds sterling (2.3 to 3, 5 million euros).
Bidders came from 76 countries in Europe, North America and Latin America and buyers from 50 countries. Another star lot, the manuscript of Bohemian Rhapsody was sold for 1.3 million pounds sterling (1.6 million euros). Trials of We Are The Champions went for 317,000 pounds (370,000 euros), just like those of Don’t Stop Me Now. Among the many costumes, the crown and cape worn by the artist during The Magic Tour, with which Queen filled stadiums in 1986, sold for 635,000 pounds sterling (740,000 euros), around ten times their estimate.
Freddie Mercury’s mustache comb, estimated at 400 pounds, sold for 152,000 pounds sterling (177,000 euros). The collection was put up for sale by Mary Austin, a close friend to whom he was even engaged for a time and to whom Freddie Mercury had made his heir. Before being scattered, it was brought together during a free exhibition in London, which welcomed 140,000 visitors, to which are added 10,000 others counting partial exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles or Hong Kong, according to the house of sale.
Part of the proceeds from the auction must be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and Elton John Aids Foundation, two organizations involved in the fight against AIDS, which Freddie Mercury suffered from when he died in 1991 at the age of 45.
