Kurt Cobain Caricature Sells For $281000 - Noise11.com
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Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain Caricature Sells For $281000

by Music-News.com on June 15, 2021

in News

Kurt Cobain’s caricature of himself has sold for a whopping $281,000 (£199,000) at auction.

Cobain’s self-portrait of the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ rocker playing his beloved guitar, includes the words: “I don’t know how to play and I don’t give a hoot!”

And it’s signed: “Kurdt Kobain Rock Star (sic).”

The unique item well-exceeded its estimated valuation of 10,000 dollars (£7,000) when it went under the hammer as part of Julien’s Auctions Music Icons sale.

Kurt – who died by suicide in 1994 – gave the drawing to Jacque Chong, who photographed the grunge band on their promotional tour of seminal LP ‘Nevermind’ in Singapore in 1992.

The caricature sale comes after strands of the music legend’s hair sold for $14,145 (£10,005).

Cobain’s blonde tresses went under the hammer as part of the Amazing Music Auction by Iconic Auctions.

The hair had been kept since Nirvana’s tour in 1989 in support of their LP ‘Bleach’.

Kurt’s pal Tessa Osbourne and a fan had given Kurt a haircut in Birmingham, England, and she then gave a single lock to Seattle artist Nicole DePolo following the death of the musician.

The listing read: “This one-of-a-kind artifact is entirely fresh-to-market, and accompanied by an impeccable lineage of provenance including images of Kurt posing with the woman who cut this hair, scissors in hand, and a fantastic shot of the hair actually being cut!

“She provided the original bag with handwritten provenance note, ’29/10/89: Tess cut Kurt’s hair in Birmingham, England, 27 Holy Rd., Handsworth, Birmingham B202BU’ which is retained with the original complete lock.”

The lowest bid for the lot was set at $2,500 (£1,800).

Last year, Kurt’s acoustic guitar from Nirvana’s iconic 1993 ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’ performance sold for a record-breaking $6 million at auction.

The instrument ended up breaking the record for the most expensive guitar sale.

The lot came with the guitar case Kurt used, which has a poster of Poison Idea’s album ‘Feel the Darkness’ on it, whilst inside is a bunch of guitar strings, picks and a “stash” bag.

A cardigan owned by Kurt was also sold at auction in 2019 for $334,000.

What’s more, Kurt’s custom-made Fender Mustang guitar was sold at the auction for $340,000, having spent several years on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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