Freddie Mercury auction smashes estimates, netting $50.4 million
An auction of items once owned by Queen frontman Freddie Mercury has netted £39.9 million ($50.4 million), greatly exceeding the £ 7.6 million to £11.3 million estimate that auction house Sotheby’s in London originally forecast.
Over a one-week period, Sotheby’s auctioned off more than 30,000 objects that had belonged to the pop icon and subsequently bequeathed to his longtime friend Mary Austin. Estimates for the proceeds of the combined six auctions had already been blown out of the water by the end of a raucous opening auction night, replete with moneyed super fans sporting homemade costumes in homage to the singer. A spokesperson for Sotheby’s said it was the highest total in history for any celebrity sale.
The overwhelming success of the sale confirms that interest in Mercury’s life and music — and a willingness to spend large amounts to buy his memorabilia — remains strong despite a slowing global economy. A record 140,000 people lined up to visit Sotheby’s London headquarters in advance of the auction and to see an exhibit of many of the items, from sequined jumpsuits to annotated sheets of music.
“I don’t think people are looking at these things the way they might an exquisite wristwatch — they’re looking at it because of who owned it,” said David Macdonald, Sotheby’s senior specialist and head of single client sales, who has overseen the auction since its inception.
“Even when times are tough, there’s this almost pleasure in the connectivity with someone like Freddie Mercury, who was all about performance and celebration,” he continued. “That resonance transcends whatever might be happening in the market.”
Items on offer ran the gamut from the deeply intimate to the pedestrian.
One of the collection’s smallest items — a Tiffany comb used by Mercury to tame his trademark moustache and measuring less than 3 inches long — sold for £152,400, more than 250 times its original estimate. A badly stained Adidas shoulder bag that was cream-colored when the piece was brand new “circa 1980s” blew past its £150 estimate to go for £10,800.
“When it comes to the more everyday objects, the brief to the team was to please put these things up at market value because you can’t anticipate someone’s love for it — you can’t value love,” said
Macdonald.
A portion of the tens of millions of pounds raised by the auction will go to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation, while the rest will go to Austin.
“It’s almost generational when sales like this happen and I can’t think when the next one will be either,” said Macdonald.