Late Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s memorabilia collection brought in $93,656,609 during live auctions from March 12-14 with Christie’s, with online auctions ongoing. Christie’s pre-auction estimates for the items being sold in March was $40 million.
While Irsay’s collection was heavily music-focused, a number of notable sports items sold: the saddle used by jockey Ron Turcotte as he rode Secretariat to the 1973 Triple Crown sold for $1.524 million, the most ever paid for a horse racing item; the Edmonton Oilers jersey Wayne Gretzky scored his 500th NHL goal in sold for $952,500; Muhammad Ali’s fight robe from Ali vs. Liston II — his first public appearance after changing his name from Cassius Clay — sold for $444,500; a Jackie Robinson bat from the 1953 season sold for $406,400; and a Mead spiral notebook containing 28 pages of Sylvester Stallone’s original “Rocky” script sold for $508,000.
“The Irsay sale did justice to the brilliance of the collector, and of the monumental pieces he brought together, iconic objects that tell the story of our culture and our times,” said Julien Pradels, president of Christie’s Americas, in a statement. “The Irsay collection is singular, but Christie’s will have other amazing sales in the space moving forward.”
The auction saw 23 world records, including the most paid for a guitar and the most paid for a literary manuscript: David Gilmour of Pink Floyd’s famed black Stratocaster, which sold for $14.55 million, and writer Jack Kerouac’s original typescript of “On the Road,” which sold for $12.135 million. (Country music star Zach Bryan purchased the Kerouac scroll and is in the process of converting the St. Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell, Massachusetts, into the Jack Kerouac Center.)
Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead’s custom Doug Irwin guitar “Tiger” sold for $11.56 million, while Kurt Cobain of Nirvana’s 1969 Lake Placid blue Fender Mustang hit $6.907 million. Before the Irsay auction, the record paid for a guitar was $6.01 million for Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic-electric used during Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” concert.
According to Christie’s, “a portion of the proceeds of these sales will be donated to philanthropic causes supported by Jim Irsay during his lifetime.”
Irsay died last March of cardiac arrest at 65. The FBI is investigating the circumstances of Irsay’s death and the potential connection to his relationship with Dr. Harry Haroutunian, a California addiction specialist who reportedly prescribed Irsay pain pills and ketamine.
