Martin D-45 1934
PROJECT 91 realize this is a museum, not a guitar store?” And the response would be,“ I don’ t care what it costs.”
That’ s the power of story. You mentioned the upcoming Irsay auction … Yeah, I got to go see part of Jim’ s collection at the University of Indiana a couple of months before he passed away and have lunch with one of Jim’ s oldest friends and Marc Johnson, the curator of the collection. What I took away from that was the passion that Jim had for Americana. He was extraordinarily wealthy, but he had a passion for Americana. Other wealthy people? I don’ t know what their passion is other than, hey, I got more money.
I was hoping the daughters might have gifted them or maybe created a museum, but both of those options are very challenging. Creating a museum is extremely challenging. Gifting them is complicated too. So, I understand the thinking— let’ s just get them back out into the hands of collectors. It’ s going to be exciting. We’ re going to register to bid— especially on the Martins. We’ ll pick a number and bid up to that number. And I hope whoever ends up buying the guitar blows right past the number we’ re planning to bid. I’ ll say this: our number isn’ t going to be what some billionaire might be willing to pay. But we’ re going to bid. We’ re certainly going to bid on the Martins.
Martin D-45 1934
Getting back to the Project 91 price point— if this isn’ t simply about paying $ 150,000 for a musical instrument, but about positioning it more like fine art, a rare watch, or another historically anchored luxury asset— how should collectors think about it? What kind of asset is it intended to be? And what could it represent as a long-term store of value?
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