One of the most famous guitars in music history – the ax wielded by Bob Dylan when he infamously went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival — fetched a record $965,000 at Christie’s on Friday.
The sunburst Fender Stratocaster that Dylan strapped on at the festival — enraging hippie purists who had expected him to play unplugged, a performance that became a 20th century cultural touchstone — was sold to an unnamed, absentee buyer, Christie’s announced.
The auction house had anticipated a more modest sale price of $300,000 to $500,000.
“An auction estimate is always just that: It’s an estimate. It’s not cut in stone,” said Tom Lecky of Christie’s. “Obviously the marketplace realized its importance and competed for it. It’s a great result for a legendary guitar.”
The last owners, a New Jersey family, held onto the instrument for nearly 50 years after Dylan accidentally left it on a private plane. They finally put it on the block after a legal tussle with Dylan himself, who initially swore the guitar wasn’t his. Neither party revealed whether Dylan would get a cut of the auction proceeds as part of their settlement.
A set of handwritten lyrics found inside the famous guitar’s case, for a Dylan song called “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” also sold for $20,000. Four other lots containing handwritten Dylan lyrics from the same guitar case failed to find any buyers.
The previous record for a guitar sold at auction was for Eric Clapton’s Strat, nicknamed “Blackie,” which went for $959,000 in 2004.