Guitar from Kurt Cobain's last tour fetches over US$1.5 million

THE guitar that the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain used during his last tour sold for more than US$1.5 million, an auction house announced on Friday (Nov 17).

The American grunge icon played the sky-blue, left-handed Fender Mustang during the band’s In Utero tour, Julien’s Auctions said.

“Nirvana played their final show on Mar 1, 1994, in Munich, Germany, and all available concert footage confirms that Cobain played this guitar that night,” the auction house said.

Cobain died by suicide in Apr 1994, aged 27 and at the height of his fame.

Julien’s listed the final sale price as US$1,587,500.

The Mustang guitar was still intact, unlike many that Cobain destroyed on stage.

In May, a smashed-up black Fender Stratocaster of his fetched US$595,000 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York.

On Thursday, Julien’s also sold a guitar belonging to Eric Clapton for US$1.27 million.

Nicknamed “The Fool”, the Gibson SG is associated with the English musician’s time with the band Cream, where he produced one of rock’s most distinctive sounds.

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Its personalised decoration, in a psychedelic style, makes the instrument one of the most easily recognisable in rock and a symbol of the “Summer of Love”, the counterculture movement of 1967 which marked a generation.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the two guitars will go to mental health charity Kicking the Stigma.