Celebrity items that fetched top dollar at auctions
Bob Dylan’s guitar, which he used on his first electric tour in 1966, recently sold at auction for an eye-watering US$490,000!
The 1965 Fender Telecaster had also been used by other musicians like Eric Clapton and George Harrison.
That’s certainly not the first time celebrity memorabilia have sold for a huge chunk of change.
Check out these other instances:
1. Russell Crowe’s movie memorabilia (US$2.8 million)
The Gladiator star held an auction dubbed “The Art of Divorce” in Sydney last April to sell 227 of his personal valuables and movie memorabilia.
Among the items that sold were a leather jockstrap he wore in Cinderella Man, an antique violin he learned how to play for the movie Master and Commander, and his director’s chair from American Gangster.
The auction netted the actor an impressive US$2.8 million.
Not bad for an afternoon’s work.
2. JK Rowling’s chair (US$394,000)
The chair that author JK Rowling sat on when she worked on the first two Harry Potter novels sold for US$394,000 in 2016.
According to a note that Rowling sent to the new owner, this was the comfiest of four mismatched chairs she had been given when she lived in a council flat in Edinburgh, which was why it became the chair of choice in front of her typewriter.
3. Albert Einstein’s notes (US$1.8 million)
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist had given a courier two handwritten notes in 1922 in lieu of a tip when he was staying at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.
Those two notes sold for a whopping US$1.8 million in October last year.
One of the notes reads: “A calm and humble life will bring more happiness than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it.”
Very practical - but expensive - advice indeed.
Written by Siti Rohani. This article first appeared in Reader’s Digest. For more of what you love from the world’s best-loved magazine, here’s our best subscription offer.