**Kurt Cobain’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Guitar to Be Sold at Midtown Auction Next Spring, Expected to Fetch Millions**
A rare piece of music history is set to go under the hammer next spring in Midtown: Kurt Cobain’s 1969 Fender Mustang guitar, famously used in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video, will be auctioned off with an expected price tag between $2.5 million and $5 million, The Post has learned.
The iconic Nirvana frontman’s Mustang will be part of a massive sale featuring late Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay’s extensive music memorabilia collection at Christie’s in March. According to Alexander Rotter, Christie’s global president, “He made the greatest music on this guitar and defined a generation.” The Mustang is rumored to have been one of Cobain’s favorite guitars.
“This is a piece of American history, so I [predict] a lot of people coming in for it. I am convinced it will get competitive,” Rotter added.
The auction is expected to draw a record number of music fans into the free-to-enter Rockefeller Plaza galleries, which have previously showcased guitars once owned by legendary rockers such as Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. Rotter anticipates a vibrant turnout, describing the atmosphere as feeling “like a concert.”
“I expect this building to be crowded when we’re selling this collection — excitingly crowded. When we open up and go into popular culture at the highest level, because that’s what we do, it gets exciting,” he said.
Jim Irsay purchased the Fender Mustang for $4.6 million in 2022, making it the highest-priced electric guitar ever sold at the time. Despite significant scratches and wear on the guitar’s body, Rotter pointed out that this particular instrument hasn’t suffered the same fate as some other Cobain-owned guitars, many of which were smashed onstage or heavily battered.
Cobain’s heavily damaged Fender Stratocaster sold for $595,000 at auction in 2023, even though it was unplayable.
“He didn’t go crazy with [the Mustang], like with some other guitars that we’ve seen in videos or live concerts,” said Rotter. “He took care of it and it survived.”
Cobain himself expressed his fondness for the Mustang in a 1991 interview with Guitar World, calling the model “cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small.” Yet, he also proclaimed, “Out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. I’ve only owned two of them. Lately, I’ve been using a Strat live because I don’t want to ruin my Mustang yet.”
For fans eager to acquire a piece of Cobain’s legacy before the spring auction, Christie’s will also be auctioning an Elizabeth Peyton portrait of Kurt Cobain this Wednesday. The portrait, completed a year after Cobain’s 1994 death by suicide at the age of 27, is expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million.
Rotter described the artwork as “almost a love letter in portraiture form of Kurt by one of the greatest portrait artists of her generation.”
The Fender Mustang was used in studio sessions for both Nirvana’s seminal 1991 album *Nevermind* and its 1993 follow-up, *In Utero*. The guitar was previously owned by the Cobain family and displayed at The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle from 2010 until its acquisition by Irsay. It later toured as part of the Jim Irsay Collection, which includes other legendary items such as Elton John’s longtime Steinway & Sons touring piano, handwritten Bob Dylan lyrics, a Ringo Starr drum kit, and guitars used by Elvis Presley, Prince, and John Lennon.
The former business mogul was reportedly offered more than $1 billion for his extensive music memorabilia collection, according to ESPN. In October, Irsay’s daughters announced plans to sell off large portions of the collection, with part of the proceeds designated for charity.
“Our dad was a passionate collector, driven not by possession, but by a profound appreciation for the beauty, history, and cultural resonance of the items he curated,” the family said in a statement. “From iconic instruments to handwritten lyrics by legends to rare historical artifacts and documents, each piece in the collection tells a story, and he was always so excited to share those stories with the world.”
Christie’s is already preparing the stage for the Midtown auction house’s rockstar sale next spring, promising to “transform” its galleries with some of music history’s most treasured ephemera.
“Right now, we’re thinking about how to display [Irsay’s] guitars because they need to look the part,” Rotter explained, pointing to the acclaimed Fender Mustang as a highlight. “It will be an amazing sale of memorabilia that spans [eras], and this will be one of the trophies.”
https://nypost.com/2025/11/16/us-news/kurt-cobains-iconic-fender-mustang-from-smells-like-teen-spirit-to-be-sold-at-nyc-auction/
