The stains are still there. There’s even cigarettes burns that you can see on the sweater.
For the second time in four years, the green sweater worn by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's MTV 'Unplugged' concert is heading to auction, and yes, the cardigan is unwashed. “It’s very important that we don’t wash it,” Darren Julien of Julien’s Auctions told Rolling Stone. “The stains are still there. There’s even cigarettes burns that you can see on the sweater.”
The current owner, a businessman who wishes to remain anonymous, kept the piece stored in acid-free tissue in a safe. The auction house now has it stashed in similar tissue and a plastic case.
The cardigan holds a pre-auction minimum bid set for $200,000. According to the Julien’s listing, that minimum bid has already been matched, with Cobain’s cardigan expected to reach bids of upwards of $300,000.
California’s Julien's Auctions are also offering a custom Fender guitar built in 1993, which Cobain used during the band's ‘In Utero’ tour. The turquoise-bodied left-handed guitar was on display for several years at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
According to NME, Julien’s said that rock’n’roll memorabilia has recently become “not just a collector’s market – it’s an investor’s market”.
Cobain, one of the biggest stars of the grunge rock music scene of the early 1990s, was just 27 when he committed suicide on April 5, 1994 after battling a heroin addiction and depression.
“Kurt Cobain made the rock 'n' roll myth live on after the 1970s and 1980s hard rock series," said Pontus Silfverstolpe, co-founder of Barnebys. "He lived up to all expectations. His untimely death fuels even more interest in the sale of his memorabilia at auction.”
This is not the first time Cobain's property goes under the auction hammer. Cobain's handwritten 1991 letter to his wife Courtney Love was sold at Christie's for about $19,000 in 2004. In addition, the rock star's guitars, microphones and lab rock have been sold for six-figure sums at auction.
The items are part of a two-day auction of rock memorabilia, to be held on October 25-26. Other pieces in the auction include handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen.
"Memorabilia from celebrities has been one of the most lucrative investments one has been able to make in recent years at auction," continued Pontus Silfverstolpe.
