KURT COBAIN Guitar Brings $117,500 At Auction

April 20, 2004

A guitar owned by Kurt Cobain during his early days with NIRVANA was purchased for $117,500 in the "Icons of 20th Century Music Auction" conducted Saturday by Heritage Galleries of Dallas.

The guitar is a right-handed model that was modified to be played by a left-handed guitarist, according to Billboard.com. It is the only known example of a Mark IV-style Mosrite Gospel, which is a solid-body guitar instead of the Gospel's typical hollow body. Cobain purchased the instrument in San Francisco in 1990 and sold it in 1992.

The original case bears the words "NIRVANA" and "F*** Elvis" in white paint. Though since painted over with the same white paint, the words are still visible.

"You can see the guitar in photographs of NIRVANA's famous September 1990 Motorsports concert in Seattle," said Jeffrey Woolf of Heritage Galleries. He said Cobain reluctantly sold the guitar before his band gained worldwide popularity, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The gallery's policy is not to disclose buyers.

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