Freddie Mercury treasures set high note at auction
A silver bangle Freddie Mercury wore in the video for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody has sold for the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of rock star jewellery, while his handwritten draft for the song fetched millions.
Photo: Freddie Mercury's handwritten draft of Bohemian Rhapsody fetched $2.2m at auction. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire
Auctioneer Sotheby’s says the late Queen frontman’s bracelet fetched 698,500 pounds ($A1.4 million) — 100 times its estimated low price.
The singer and songwriter’s flamboyant stage costumes, handwritten drafts to hits such as We Are The Champions and the baby grand piano he composed Queen’s greatest hits on also went up for sale.
The bangle broke a record set when John Lennon’s leather and bead talisman sold for 295,000 pounds ($A579,039) in 2008, Sotheby’s said.
The auction opened with the sale of the graffiti-tagged door to the garden of Mercury’s home rapidly blowing past the high estimate of 25,000 pounds ($A49,000) projected before the sale.
The green door, covered in hand-painted love notes from fans who made a pilgrimage to his London house, sold for 412,750 pounds ($A810,100) that included a buyer’s premium.
The Yamaha baby grand piano on which Mercury wrote some of his biggest hits had been expected to reach bids as high as 3 million pounds ($A5.9 million) but sold for 1.7 million pounds ($A3.3 million).
Other items likely to be treasured by Queen fans were Mercury’s draft lyrics hits Don’t Stop Me Now, We Are The Champions and Somebody to Love.
The handwritten draft of Bohemian Rhapsody — scratched on stationery from the defunct British Midland Airways showed Mercury originally named the song Mongolian Rhapsody but crossed it out. It sold for about 1.4 million pounds ($A2.7 million).
The collection was amassed by Mercury after Queen’s glam-rock produced an avalanche of hits that allowed the singer to achieve his dream of living a Victorian life “surrounded by exquisite clutter.”
More than 1400 items are being sold by Mercury’s close friend, Mary Austin, to whom he left his house and all its possessions when he died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991 aged 45.
Some of the proceeds from a series of live and online auctions were to go to charities. All of the proceeds of the sale of a Cartier onyx and diamond ring given to Mercury by Elton John that sold for 273,000 pounds ($A535,860) were to go to the Rocket Man singer’s AIDS charity.
Sotheby’s devoted all 15 of its galleries to display Mercury’s eclectic collection in a tribute that was like a museum exhibit that it opened to the public for free, drawing more than 140,000 visitors in just over a month.
People from around the world visited Freddie Mercury: A World of his Own, and the publicity drove up bidding for online auctions that began last month and close next week.
Even the items that had seemed in reach for some buyers, quickly eclipsed estimates in online auctions.
A collection of chopsticks that was estimated to fetch 40-60 British pounds had a current bid 1200 pounds ($A2300).
One of the quirkier items, a silver moustache comb from Tiffany & Co, that had been expected to set a buyer back 400 to 600 pounds had a bid at 35,000 pounds ($A68,700).
-with AAP