From Kurt Cobain’s self-portrait to Britney Spears’ love letters, music artifacts are going on sale
CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — If you’ve ever wanted to own a self-portrait from Kurt Cobain or a Guitar owned by Eddie Van Halen, this weekend you may have your chance.
The Action house Julien’s Auctions are selling those pieces along with tons of others including lyrics written by Bob Dylan, an outfit worn by Cher and even Britney Spears hand-written love letters.
Julien’s Auctions Executive Director Martin Nolan explained this is a part of an annual event. Last year, they sold Kurt Cobain’s guitar for over $6 million.
“So these items come from all different people that collect these items over the years. And now it’s time for them to let go. And the nice thing is that they go to new homes, new people that will take care of them preserve them, they enjoy them,” said Nolan.
He said even non-music based museums are bidders for items of music history.
“Even museums love to have these icons because they’re so iconic, great conversation pieces and people will come to museums to see these 3-dimensional items. We all can relate to something from music,” said Nolan. “We can’t all relate to a Monet or a Picasso, certainly not for 10s of millions of dollars.”
The auction usually lasts two days, but the auction house added a third date because they have so many items.
“So people from museums to investors to collectors to fans, they want to own some of these items. Because we’re all nostalgic. We want to hark back to a time, if we could turn back time, own something really cool,” said Nolan.