Last week, a vast collection of items linked to Freddie Mercury was up for auction, featuring his baby grand piano and early handwritten song lyrics.
The auction, which included items from Mary Austin, generated millions of dollars in bids. The baby grand piano, which Mercury used to finish ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ was the top-selling item at the auction. It was sold for $2.1 million. According to Austin, the late singer bought it for approximately $1,200.
A handwritten draft of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ revealing that Freddie originally named it ‘Mongolian Rhapsody,’ sold for $1.7 million. Other draft lyric documents were also sold, including one with lyrics for an early version of ‘We Are The Champions.’
The silver snake bracelet seen on Mercury in the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ music video fetched $881,000, setting a new record for the highest price ever paid for a rock star’s piece of jewelry. This title was previously held by John Lennon’s leather and bead talisman, which sold for $368,000 in 2008.
Mercury’s garden door from his Kensington home, adorned with graffiti expressing love for him in various languages, was sold for $521,000. Numerous other items like stage-worn outfits, artwork, and furniture were also sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Brian May also recently took to his social media to share his opinions on the auction. The guitarist shared a photo of his late friend playing a guitar and wrote:
“Tomorrow, while I’m speaking passionately to Welsh farmers about cows and badgers and bovine TB, Freddie’s most intimate personal effects and writings that were part of what we shared for so many years, will go under the hammer, to be knocked down to the highest bidder and dispersed forever. I can’t look. To us, his closest friends and family, it’s too sad. Thanks, Joyce Moore, for finding the pic. I don’t know the credit.”
Out of all the items, only 59 were sold for $15.4 million, which exceeded the expected amounts during the four-and-a-half-hour auction. Bidders from 61 countries participated through in-person, online, and phone bidding.
