JIM IRSAY COLLECTION SUPPLEMENT
top: Clapton’ s 1939 Martin 000-42, played at his 1992 MTV Unplugged performance, brought $ 4,101,000 at the Irsay Collection sale, more than three times its high estimate and a new record for any acoustic guitar at auction. Clapton’ s electrics have long commanded the headlines; this one corrected the oversight.
bottom: A Personal Moment in the Room: Eric Clapton’ s 1939 Martin 000-42— the guitar used for his watershed 1992 MTV Unplugged performance— came up for sale, and I raised my paddle, bringing the bid to $ 600,000. Of course, the bidding quickly accelerated, leaving this lightweight in a cloud of dust. The guitar ultimately sold for $ 4.101 million.
The Mustang is valuable because it appeared at the precise cultural moment when rock music abruptly changed direction. Collectors were buying the artifact of that rupture.
The result exposes something about the market for celebrity instruments. Intrinsic value— the quality of the guitar, the skill of the player, the importance of the performance— does not always determine price. But cultural mythology often does.
Clapton’ s Unplugged Martin represents musical excellence and craftsmanship at the highest level. Cobain’ s Mustang represents a generational earthquake. Both are historically important, but they speak to different kinds of memory. In the auction room, the earthquake won. Nostalgia, like music itself, rarely behaves according to rules of craft.
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