Iconic guitar owned by Prince set for auction
A crucial piece of Prince‘s history, one of the iconic guitars he used during the height of his success, is heading to auction. The instrument is expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars when it’s sold off later this month in New York.
Since passing away in 2016, Prince’s legacy has become steeped in legend, with the beloved mythical artist widely respected as one of the greatest guitar players ever seen. Notably, he commonly wrote, recorded and produced his tracks entirely solo, switching between a whole band’s worth of instruments, but guitar was his true love. Throughout his discography, he wrote some incredible riffs that millions of players continue to worship.
On stage, he was seen wielding a whole array of custom guitars. The Cloud 3 guitar, which he favoured during the 1980s and ‘90s, is now set to go to auction.
The instrument was used during the Purple Rain, Parade, Sign o’ the Times, Lovesexy, and Diamonds and Pearls tours, when Prince was at the peak of his powers.
The guitar is bright yellow in colour, with custom logos along the fretboard. The item was last sold nearly 20 years ago for £4,200, which was significantly lower than its original listing of £59,000 due to the fact that the instrument hadn’t been verified as one he’d played.
Now, the guitar is verified after a CT scan and interviews with the people behind its creation. It remains fully playable and now carries a certificate of authenticity. With the legitimacy proven, it’s expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000 but could beat those estimates. Currently, the highest-selling guitar that was previously owned by the artist is a blue Cloud that sold for $700,000 in 2017.
Prince’s guitar is currently being sold alongside a strong lineup of instruments from some of history’s most famous artists. John Lennon’s recently found Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar is up for grabs, along with Bob Dylan’s Fender Telecaster, Sex Pistol Steve Jones’s 1974 Gibson Les Paul, Heart’s Nancy Wilson’s 1984 Duncan Quattro electric guitar, and Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead’s 1975 Travis Bean. For guitar players, with a lot of cash, the auction held at Christie’s is a treasure trove of musical history.
Even without access to the money required to purchase the chunk of musical history, the guitar will soon be on show to the public. The Cloud 3 will be part of an exhibition tour of the auction at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville from the 15th to the 18th of May. After that, it’ll head to New York for a week of public viewing before the auction on the 29th and 30th of May, at the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square.
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