Kurt Cobain’s iconic MTV Unplugged Guitar is Hitting the Auction Block

Along with other memorabilia by the late Nirvana frontman.

Nirvana fans, this one’s for you. A guitar played by late frontman Kurt Cobain at an iconic MTV Unplugged performance is hitting the auction block at a starting estimate of US$1 million.

The retro acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E Cobain strummed for Nirvana’s career-defining performance in New York — just five months before his shock death at age 27 — will be open to the highest bidder the weekend of 19 June in Beverly Hills and online via Julien’s Auction’s Music Icons sale here.

Nirvana’s acoustic performance during the taping for the popular MTV Unplugged series on 18 November 1993 became what is considered one of history’s greatest live albums. It included renditions of Nirvana’s hits About A Girl and Come As You Are along with covers including David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World.

The guitar will be on display in the front window of London’s Piccadilly Circus Hard Rock Cafe starting 15 May until 31 May, before it officially goes to auction on 19 June.

Other Cobain memorabilia going up for sale includes a black custom-made and smashed Fender Stratocaster guitar played during 1994’s In Utero Tour — starting at US$60,000 (S$85,000) — and a metallic silver lame long sleeve button-down shirt the artist wore in the 1993 Heart-shaped Box music video, starting at US$10,000 (S$14,180). More details here.

(Main photo: Frank Micelotta/ Getty Images)

This story was first published via AFP Relaxnews.