Freddie Mercury’s personal items have fetched a huge $50.4 million at auction.
Items that went under the hammer included Mercury’sYahama grand pianoand a silverTiffany & Co moustache comb, which sold for $189,000, greatly surpassing its pre-auction estimate of $500 to $750.
The formerQueenfrontman’s instrument was used to compose many of the band’s biggest hits, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and the handwritten lyrics for the song also fetched a whopping $1.7 million. The13-page itemincluded the track’s working title, “Mongolian Rhapsody,” and alternate lines and lyrics.
Wiktor Szymanowicz/Anadolu Agency via Getty
A rare surviving school book, signed Frederick Bulsara on the front, also fetched $88,786. Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946.
Freddie Mercury’s Yahama grand piano.Philip Dethlefs/picture alliance via Getty
Philip Dethlefs/picture alliance via Getty
Nearly 42,000 bids were placed across the six days from bidders from 76 countries for the never-before-seen private possessions.
“To be able to see first hand, via all the beautiful things he loved and lived with, Freddie in the round, to be able to share that with so many fans and admirers around the world — there’s nothing that comes close. So many magical moments, and so many magical objects - but perhaps the one that cast the strongest spell was Freddie’s silver moustache comb. I mean — how else to tend the most famous moustache in the world? It had to be silver, and it had to be Tiffany. And for one determined buyer, it had to be theirs,” MacDonald continued.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Mercury left all of his possessions to his first love and close friend,Mary Austin. In April, Austin, who cared for the items for more than 30 years at Mercury’s former Garden Lodge home in Kensington, London, revealedwhy it was time to let the possessions go.
“It was important to me to do this in a way that I felt Freddie would have loved, and there was nothing he loved more than an auction. Freddie was an incredible and intelligent collector who showed us that there is beauty and fun and conversation to be found in everything.”
“I hope this will be an opportunity to share all the many facets of Freddie, both public and private, and for the world to understand more about, and celebrate, his unique and beautiful spirit,” she added.
source: people.com
