Late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury's prized bangle sells for $881K at New York auction
Freddie Mercury wore with an ivory satin catsuit in the 'Bohemian Rhapsody' video sold Wednesday for the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of jewelry owned by a rock star as the late Queen front man's most prized possessions were sold, Sotheby's said.
The bracelet went for 698,500 pounds ($881,000) — 100 times its estimated low price — as the singer and songwriter's flamboyant stage costumes, handwritten drafts to hits such as «We are the Champions» and the baby grand piano he composed Queen's greatest hits on went up for sale.
The item broke a record set when John Lennon's leather and bead talisman sold for 295,000 pounds ($368,000) in 2008, Sotheby's said.
The auction opened with the sale of the graffiti-tagged door to the garden of Mercury's home rapidly blowing past the high estimate of 25,000 pounds ($31,250) projected before the sale. The green door covered in hand-painted love notes from fans who made a pilgrimage to the house in the tony Kensington section of London sold for an eye-popping 412,750 pounds ($521,000) that included a buyer's premium.
The collection was amassed by Mercury after Queen's glam-rock produced an avalanche of hits that allowed the singer to achieve his dream of living a Victorian life «surrounded by exquisite clutter.»
More than 1,400 items are being sold by Mercury's close friend, Mary Austin, to whom he left his house and all its possessions when he died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991 at 45.
Some of the proceeds from a series of live and online auctions were to go to charities.
