The guitar collection of Pink Floyd singer and songwriter David Gilmour has become the the most valuable collection of musical instruments ever sold at auction at Christie’s in New York last night. The white glove auction of 126 guitars in New York totalled $21.4 million and attracted bidders from all over the world. His iconic 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster made $3.975 million, a record for any guitar sold at auction. The ‘Black Strat’ was Gilmour’s primary performance and recording instrument integral to recording many Pink Floyd’s greatest albums including The Wall, Wish You Were Here, and Dark Side of The Moon, as well as his solo albums. The start of the sale had to be delayed for one hour to accommodate the unprecedented number of bidders who queued around the block in Rockefeller Center.
The entire proceeds from the auction will be donated to the charity ClientEarth. This week in a statement David Gilmour said: “The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible. As Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist said in a speech earlier this year “Either we choose to go on as a civilisation, or we don’t”. The choice really is that simple, and I hope that the sale of these guitars will help ClientEarth in their cause to use the law to bring about real change. We need a civilised world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”
The previous record for collection of musical instruments was Eric Clapton’s guitar collection which sold in 1999 ($5,072,350) and in 2004 ($7,438,624), realizing $12,510,974 in total.
