The hat that Michael Jackson wore just before his first moonwalk – his signature dance move – sold for 77,640 euros (with fees), or more than $110,000, at an auction in Paris on Tuesday in the presence of many fans and curious onlookers, the known Drouot Hotel.
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This silk-lined wool hat, a fedora model, estimated at between 60,000 and 100,000 euros, was the highlight of this auction with 200 stone objects that went under the hammer from the auction house Lemon Auction.
“It was one Adam Kelly – whose badge we have for the show on March 25, 1983 – who picked up this hat that day, thinking that the singer’s staff would come and collect it, but no,” said he told AFP Arthur Perault, general director of the Artpèges gallery, who put it up for sale.
Adam Kelly kept it for several years before selling it to an American collector. This hat later reappeared in a European collection.
Bidders also competed for the guitar of bluesman T-Bone Walker (1910-1975), who was a major influence on BB King, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. The instrument was sold for 129,400 euros (chargeable). This “six-string”, which was made in 1949 in just 22 examples, had a high estimate of 150,000 euros.
Recently in London, a series of auctions of thousands of items belonging to Freddie Mercury reached 46.5 million euros, a record for a collection of this kind, according to auction house Sotheby’s. This includes the piano on which the artist composed almost everything from Bohemian Rhapsody, which was sold for 2 million euros.