Jim Irsay’s $1 billion guitar collection goes to auction in New York
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In the summer of 1991, Nirvana filmed the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at a sound stage in Culver City. That day, Kurt Cobain strummed the grunge anthem’s iconic four-chord opening riff on a 1969 Fender Mustang, Lake Placid Blue with a signature racing stripe.
Nearly 35 years later, the six-string relic hung along a gallery wall just six miles north at Christie’s in Beverly Hills, where the late billionaire businessman Jim Irsay’s world-renowned guitar collection was being displayed in advance of the instruments going to auction the next month at Christie’s New York. Each piece, illuminated by an arched spotlight and flanked by a label chronicling its history, carried the aura of a Renaissance painting.
Nearly 35 years later, the six-string relic hung along a gallery wall just six miles north at Christie’s in Beverly Hills, where the late billionaire businessman Jim Irsay’s world-renowned guitar collection was being displayed in advance of the instruments going to auction the next month at Christie’s New York. Each piece, illuminated by an arched spotlight and flanked by a label chronicling its history, carried the aura of a Renaissance painting.