Pink Floyd, David Gilmour breaks another record: his is the most expensive guitar ever sold

David Gilmour's famous black Stratocaster has become the most expensive guitar ever sold. The instrument, indissolubly tied to the history of Pink Floyd, went under the hammer at Christie's in New York for 14.5 million dollars.

The so-called Black Strat features on some of the band's best-known recordings, including the albums "The Dark Side Of The Moon", "Wish You Were Here", "Animals" and "The Wall". It's also the guitar heard on the celebrated solo of "Comfortably Numb". The instrument resurfaced on the market as part of an auction dedicated to the guitar collection of the late Jim Irsay, former owner of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, who died last year.

The same guitar had already changed hands in 2022 for $3,975,000 during another sale organized by Christie's, in which David Gilmour auctioned off 127 items from his personal collection to raise funds for ClientEarth, an organization bringing together lawyers and environmental experts committed to protecting the environment and fighting climate change.

A portion of the proceeds from the latest sale will go toward philanthropic initiatives. The price achieved surpasses the previous record set by the 1959 Martin D-18E played by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's special "MTV Unplugged" performance, which sold for $6 million.

Among the instruments from the Irsay collection was also a Doug Irwin guitar used by Jerry Garcia during his final concert with the Grateful Dead, which sold for $11.5 million, a figure that itself surpasses the price paid for Cobain's Martin.

The auction, followed live by "Guitar World", also recorded other notable sales: a 1964 Rickenbacker that belonged to John Lennon ($1.27 million), a 1964 Gibson SG used by George Harrison ($2.27 million), a Vox custom-built for the Beatles in 1966 ($600,000), Eric Clapton's "The Fool" Gibson SG ($3 million), the Fender Mustang played by Kurt Cobain in the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video ($6 million), and a Martin 000-42 acoustic used by Eric Clapton for the "MTV Unplugged" album ($4.1 million).

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