Freddie Mercury’s Yamaha G-2 baby grand piano is pictured during a press preview ahead of the “Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own” auctions, at Sotheby’s auctioneers in London on Aug. 3, 2023. Thousands of items belonging to the charismatic Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, from manuscripts of his band’s biggest hits to furniture, paintings and knick-knacks, go under the hammer in London. DANIEL LEAL / AFP
LONDON—Thousands of items belonging to the charismatic Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, from manuscripts of his band’s biggest hits to furniture, paintings and knick-knacks are on auction in London from Wednesday, Sept. 6.
Among the highlights of the Sotheby’s “evening sale,” which will be followed by two other live auctions and three online sales, is Mercury’s piano.
The Yamaha quarter-tail piano was bought by Mercury in 1975 and was used to create almost all of his greatest songs.
It is expected to sell for £2 million-£3 million ($2.5 mllion-$3.75 million).
Also on sale is the original manuscript for epic hit “Bohemian Rhapsody,” whose 15 pages of pencil and ballpoint pen remarks reveal the different directions Mercury envisaged for the track.
It also reveals that it was originally going to be called “Mongolian Rhapsody.”
Paintings by Chagall, Dali and Picasso that adorned Mercury’s home, as well as the last painting he bought a month before his death from AIDS in 1991—an oil on canvas by James Jacques Joseph Tissot—will also go under the hammer.
Auction fan
All the items for sale are from Mercury’s home, Garden Lodge, in west London. The property’s green door, covered in fan graffiti, is one of the lots.
The entire collection is being offered for sale by Mary Austin, a close friend and one-time fiancee of Mercury’s.
“Mary Austin has lived with the collection and has cared for the collection for more than three decades,” Gabriel Heaton, a books and manuscripts specialist at Sotheby’s, told AFP.
Mercury “was not interested in having a museum of his life but he loved auctions,” to the point of being a regular at Sotheby’s sales, said Heaton.
Austin believes the artist—who was 45 when he died—would have “loved” this sale, he added.
Some 1,469 lots will go under the hammer at the famous London auction house, whose facade has been decorated with a huge moustache for the occasion.
Many reveal another side of Mercury, including his passion for cats and for Japan—as evidenced by his collection of kimonos and prints.
Moustache comb
Mercury’s most flamboyant stage costumes, Hawaiian shirt and Superman tank top will also find new homes along with his personal polaroids and legendary snapper Mick Rock’s shots.
The finest bottles from his cellar, such as Dom Perignon champagne, will be up for grabs alongside more intimate items, such as a book of personally annotated poetry and a moustache comb.
Among the more playful items are a set of games including travel Scrabble, at which Mercury excelled.
Before the sale, the auction house hosted the collection at a month-long exhibition, open to the public free of charge.
Sotheby’s estimated when the auction was announced in April that the lots would fetch at least £6 million.
Part of the proceeds will be donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John Aids Foundation, two organizations involved in the fight against AIDS.
Sotheby’s says it is the largest collection, by volume, of a cultural icon to go to auction since the Elton John sale in 1988, when 2,000 lots sold for a total of £4.8 million.
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Here are five lots that stand out in the Sotheby’s sale of items belonging to Freddie Mercury:
The piano
Mercury composed many of Queen’s songs, starting with the global hit “Bohemian Rhapsody,” on his treasured Yamaha G2 baby grand piano.
He bought it in 1975 for about £1,000—£11,000 ($13,800) today, accounting for inflation—after weeks searching for a piano to match his ambitions, but small enough to fit into the living room of the flat he shared with close friend Mary Austin.
Austin, to whom Mercury bequeathed his estate and who is now selling the collection, said he treated the piano with “absolute respect,” never smoking at it or resting a glass on its pristine surface.
“He considered it to be more than an instrument, it was an extension of himself, his vehicle of creativity,” she added.
Sotheby’s estimates it will fetch £2 million-£3 million.
In Mercury’s west London home, it was mostly paired with his “favorite piano stool”—a silk-upholstered satinwood two-seater dating from the 1920s-1930s, which he had bought in 1977 from upmarket department store Harrods.
The stool is being auctioned separately Friday, with bids already lodged for at least £8,500.
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Mercury initially planned to call one of Queen’s most globally beloved and streamed songs—and the third best-selling UK single ever—”Mongolian Rhapsody.”
The revelation is detailed in 15 pages of lyrics and melodies, written in black and blue ink and pencil on stationery from the now-defunct British Midland Airways, that led to “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The songwriter at some point crossed out the word “Mongolian” and replaced it with “Bohemian.”
The pages—eight devoted to lyrics, seven to musical harmonies—are expected to fetch up to £1.2 million.
Freddie Mercury’s signature crown and cloak ensemble, worn throughout Queen’s 1986 “Magic” Tour, is pictured during a press preview ahead of the “Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own” auctions, at Sotheby’s auctioneers in London on Aug. 3, 2023. DANIEL LEAL / AFP
Crown and cloak
Mercury wore the signature outfit throughout Queen’s 1986 “Magic” tour, when the band sold out venues across Europe.
The British royal crown replica and a cloak in fake fur, red velvet and rhinestones, were made by his friend the costume designer Diana Moseley.
The imitation gold- and jewel-encrusted crown—with four dipped arches and red velvet cap trimmed with imitation ermine—resembles the St. Edward’s crown used for the coronation of British monarchs.
The real version was donned by King Charles III when he acceded to the throne in September 2022.
The 327-centimeter cloak cape, fastening at the neck with a gold-tone metal chain, was inspired by those used at Napoleon’s coronation.
Mercury wore the ensemble at the end of the tour’s final concert at Knebworth, England, on Aug. 9 1986—his last on-stage Queen appearance.
They have a sale estimate of £60,000-£80,000.
Poems
Dating from 1964, the year Mercury’s Parsi Indian family fled Zanzibar for London due to revolution, “Poems of Spirit and Action” includes his teenage pencil notes on dozens on pages.
Inscribed with the name Fred Bulsara—Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara—his notes contain commentary and judgments on poems, word definitions as well as more “whimsical comments.”
It also features an original poem he composed titled “Bird (‘Feather flutter in the sky…’).”
Offered in an online auction closing next Tuesday, it had been expected to fetch up to £1,200 but has already attracted a bid of £7,500.
Jukebox
Mercury kept a multicolored, illuminated 1941 coin-operated Wurlitzer jukebox in his kitchen.
Housed in a walnut laminate-veneered case with yellow and red plastic panels and a glazed peacock panel front, featuring bubbling tubes and chrome metal fretwork, it is no longer in working order and being sold as a decorative object.
Nonetheless, Sotheby’s anticipates it will go for £15,000-£25,000. /ra
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