Following a popular exhibition run which saw around 140,000 fans travel to Sotheby’s in Bond Street to see the late Queen icon Freddie Mercury’s vast personal collection, the fine arts company’s Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own auction series kicked off this week. There will be a total of six auctions, which will conclude early next week.
On Wednesday, Sotheby’s held its first auction of some of Mercury’s beloved treasures. Items sold during the evening included the green garden door that was once outside his former Kensington home as well as handwritten drafts of Queen classics, including Bohemian Rhapsody and We Are The Champions.
One of the biggest sales of the evening was the icon’s Yamaha grand piano, which Mercury bought in his early music days and continued to use it throughout his career, sold for £1,742,000.
Sotheby’s said the sales for the first evening alone totalled a whopping £12.2million. There are set to be five more sales of the Queen singer’s items over the rest of the week.
Londoners were able to see the full Mercury collection up close at Sotheby’s New Bond Street, before the items went up for auction, in an exhibition which opened in early August. The Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own exhibition was open for a month before it closed on September 5, which would have marked his 77th birthday.
1. Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, Oliver Barker with gavel in hand
2. The evening had bidders from 61 countries from across the world
3. Some of the Queen icon’s clothing was also on show
4. Mercury’s Garden Lodge door was seen on display during the auction