The late Jim Irsay collected rare musical instruments. And he made some wise investments.
Via BBC.com, a guitar played by David Gilmour on six of Pink Floyd’s albums sold for a record $14.6 million at auction.
That makes it the most expensive guitar ever sold.
The 1969 Fender Stratocaster, dubbed by Gilmour the ‘Black Strat’, was used on all Pink Floyd albums recorded between 1970 and 1983.
Christie’s had estimated that the guitar would sell in the range of $2 million to $3 million.
Other items from the Irsay collection that were sold on Thursday include a custom-built guitar owned by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead ($11.6 million), the guitar used by Kurt Cobain in Nirvana’s video for Smells Like Teen Spirit ($6 million), a piano owned by John Lennon ($3.2 million), a drum set owned by Ringo Starr ($2.4 million), and Sylvester Stallone’s handwritten script for Rocky ($508,000).
Irsay died in May 2025. His family announced last year that the items would be sold, per his wishes.
“Look, it’s not mine,” Irsay said in 2023. “I always say, ‘You never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul.’ I mean, I don’t own anything. Someone else is going to own it, and someone else is going to be in here.”
