Iconic performer Freddie Mercury has taken over London auction house Sotheby’s, more than 30 years after his death.
Thousands of items belonging to the late Queen frontman were displayed publicly for the first time on Thursday ahead of an auction of more than 1400 items from his London home, Garden Lodge.
The centrepiece of the Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own collection, much like in his own life, is Mercury’s personal piano – a Yamaha baby grand.
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It’s estimated this treasured possession will sell for £2-£3 million ($3.8 – $5.8 million) when it goes under the hammer on September 6.
The instrument was used by Mercury to write some of the band’s biggest hits, including Bohemian Rhapsody. Hand-scribbled lyrics also on display show Mercury at one point called the song Mongolian Rhapsody before crossing it out and renaming arguably Queen’s biggest track.
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“This was not a stage-used piano, was not [for] recording, this was his personal instrument on which he composed and it was always at his home, as a domestic piece,” Sotheby’s specialist Dr Gabriel Heaton tells 9Honey Celebrity.
Mercury’s best friend, Mary Austin, recalled the singer “treated the Yamaha with absolute respect.”
“He would never smoke at the piano or rest a glass on top of it and would ensure nobody else did either,” she said.
There are also never-seen-before personal photos and Polaroids, plenty of jewellery, Cartier clocks, personal clothing and on-stage costumes also up for auction.
Sarah Hodgson, a specialist in entertainment memorabilia for Wallace & Hodgson, tells 9Honey Celebrity there were many “exciting finds” among the clothing.
“We did find a jacket from 1970 which nobody else had identified. So we were very excited to find that, cause it’s so early,” she says.
“Then some of the stage costume is really quite breathtaking – the silver sequin cat suit is a real joy and obviously the white winged suits from Bohemian Rhapsody are also thrilling to see because there’s little arrows and you know, everything’s exciting really.”
Mercury’s Zoroastrian faith is believed to be the reason for Queen’s black and white motifs on stage, Hodgson says.
“Freddy was very keen in the early days on having the black and white combination on stage and he actually sort of made the others dress in black and white as well so that it would have this beautiful theme,” she tells 9Honey Celebrity.
“It’s also quite clever in a way because if you’re in a very large venue, later on [in their career], he would wear white so that he could be seen easily on stage and then in smaller venues he would tend to wear black.”
Collector turns collected
David Macdonald, Sotheby’s head of single owner sales, has been the man overseeing the sale of the entire collection and says the objects have been “beautifully cared for” and items “weren’t dusty” despite not being seen for over 30 years.
A collector himself, Mercury had many artworks including some by Picasso, Matisse and Chagall, along with Sotheby’s catalogues, which are on display in his re-created lounge room.
“He would have his own ‘Night at the Museum’,” Macdonald tells 9Honey Celebrity.
“Sotheby’s would close their doors at 5pm to the public or a public view and then Freddie would arrive, come in through the back door, and he would have the spaces on his own.
“Speaking to people that knew him at Sotheby’s who say, ‘Oh my goodness, in the collection, there’s a Faberge clock, he bought that Faberge clock as a bedside clock… and them describing him looking at it and saying ‘isn’t this gorgeous?’ is always wonderful.”
There were some items that really surprised Macdonald, he tells 9Honey Celebrity.
“I didn’t know about his passion and his love for Japan. He wanted to live in Japan, he loved that country so so much. And some of the real highlights for me in the collection are things that he bought there or things that he bought at auction associated with Japan,” he says.
“His kimonos are unbelievable – we must have about 30 or 40 of them in an array of colours. And of course for Freddie wearing a kimono on stage. Wow. It was just absolutely glorious.”
While it feels like the astounding collection of items should be in a museum, it’s understood Mercury never wanted a permanent record of his life and his final resting place has never been revealed, as he didn’t want fans making the pilgrimage to his grave following his 1991 death of AIDS.
“It’s the most fitting way to celebrate his life,” Thomas Williams of Sotheby’s told journalists.
Macdonald agreed, telling 9Honey Celebrity that Mercury would have appreciated the “theatre” of his items being on display and then auctioned.
The display
The auction means it’s the last time Mercury’s belongings will ever be seen together in the one place.
Macdonald tells 9Honey the beauty of the current display is “seeing them within the context of a room”.
“Freddie didn’t buy these things to sort of [look at], he bought these things to live with and actually having a sofa in front of a painting or recreating his bar or even his kitchen with the paintings he had above that kitchen table, it’s kind of important,” he says.
“We want people to share that experience that we had [at his home].
Mercury’s dining table has also been recreated, with the meticulous record keeper’s diary of dinners and dinner guests on display.
His famous 1941-made jukebox, which he stood alongside in his kitchen during his final ever TV interview, has also been restored and is there to see.
The collection spans 15 galleries and marks the first time one collection has taken over the entire Sotheby’s premise and it’s also the first time a collection has been on display for more than just a few days.
The free exhibition will run until September 5 – which would have been Mercury’s 77th birthday – before a series of six auctions take place from September 6-14, with bidding possible internationally.
This means Aussies can jump online to make their bids across the entire range, with the lowest estimated item coming in at £40 ($78) and the piano expected to fetch the highest price of the lots.
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