The Irony of“ Money”
JIM IRSAY COLLECTION SUPPLEMENT
The Irony of“ Money”
The evening’ s headline belonged to David Gilmour’ s Black Strat, which sold for $ 14,550,000, the most expensive guitar ever to change hands at auction. The instrument is inseparable from Pink Floyd’ s defining recordings: Comfortably Numb, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and the song that made the irony of the evening impossible to ignore: Money.
A guitar that helped give rock music its most celebrated meditation on wealth had just become the most expensive guitar ever. The circularity was almost too perfect. The price, as staggering as it was, reflected something beyond money: the consuming pursuit that drives serious collectors toward objects carrying irreplaceable historical weight.
What distinguished the Irsay Collection from other significant accumulations was its collective value. These guitars spoke to each other across decades and genres. George Harrison’ s 1964 Gibson SG marked the sonic shift of the Beatles’ middle period. Clapton’ s psychedelic“ Fool” SG carried the Summer of Love forward in living color. The Black Strat embodied the atmospheric introspection of progressive rock. Gar-
122 | SPRING 2026