Rock musician Kurt Cobain’s 1959 acoustic guitar, valued at six million dollars, has been donated to the Royal College of Music in London. The legendary instrument was featured on MTV Unplugged in 1993. Because the Nirvana frontman was left-handed, the guitar was adapted to accommodate this.
According to Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, it was the last guitar the musician played before his death in 1994.
After his death, the guitar passed to his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. However, in 2018, following their divorce, the instrument went to her ex-husband, Isaiah Silva. In the summer of 2020, he sold the guitar at auction, and Peter Friedman, owner of an Australian audio technology company, purchased it. Friedman wished to donate the unique instrument to the British educational institution, according to NME.
The guitar will become part of the college’s collection. The institution holds over a thousand similar pieces. Among them is a harpsichord from the early 16th century by Alessandro Trasuntino, as well as the earliest dated guitar, which appeared in Lisbon in the 1580s.
