Stage clothes, a guitar, various jewelry and items belonging to music and fashion megastar Prince, who died in 2016, were auctioned for $675,000, RR Auction said on Monday.
Among these 164 pieces that belonged to a French businessman, we find a famous white ruffled shirt that sold for more than $33,000, a large cross pendant and a guitar that was purchased for tens of thousands of dollars.
The auction took place online from October 25 to November 16 and the total result of $675,000 was announced to AFP on Monday by a small Boston auction house, RR Auction, which had previously sold Prince items in 2018.
The estimate for the lot in this “Fashion of Prince auction” was between $300,000 and $400,000, company vice president Robert Livingston said last week.
“It is incredible for us the attention paid to this collection (…) in honor of Prince, a music legend and fashion icon,” he said.
According to RR Auctions, the entire collection belonged to a French businessman who had been in Prince’s inner circle for 20 years.
This Parisian, whom the New York Times identified as Bertrand Brillois, convinced those close to the multidimensional American artist, who died aged 57, that he was both a musical genius and a fashion icon.
Mr. Brillois then bought and collected clothing, jewelry and accessories from Prince Rogers Nelson, his real name.
Among these objects was the white silk shirt with ruffles by designers Louis and Vaughn & Marie-France that Prince wore on his back on stage at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles on January 28, 1985: The rocker had his famous “Purple “ sung. there. Rain,” as part of a massive 98-date tour of North America nearly 40 years ago.
It found a buyer for $33,219. His Blue Schecter Cloud guitar cost $64,514 and his high-heeled blue stage boots cost $24,079.
Instruments, objects, clothing of stars are the delights of auction houses: Julien’s Auctions sold a Kurt Cobain guitar in Nashville last week for more than $1.5 million and another by Eric Clapton for almost $1.3 million.