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Freddie Mercury brought down the house one last time on Wednesday night at Sotheby\u2019s in London, when items from the late Queen frontman\u2019s estate blew past their high estimate of \u00a37.2 million to total \u00a312.2 million ($23.9 million).<\/p>\n
A high-energy, in-person audience regularly burst into applause and cheers. Many attendees dressed up in Mercury-related outfits. One man, after purchasing Mercury\u2019s famous crown and cape for \u00a3635,000 jumped up with two fists clenched in the air in triumph.<\/p>\n
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Freddie Mercury\u2019s signature crown worn throughout the \u2018Magic\u2019 Tour, on display at Sotheby\u2019s auction rooms in London. The crown and the cape sold for $1.24 million.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cThe reception for the collection as a whole has been nothing short of phenomenal,\u201d said Sotheby\u2019s specialist Thomas Williams, speaking ahead of the sale. \u201cWhat the fans have really enjoyed is getting to know the private side of Freddie\u2019s life: The art he collected and what these objects show about Freddie and how he lived and what he was passionate about behind closed doors.\u201d<\/p>\n The 59 lots that hit the block on Wednesday are part of a series of six auctions Sotheby\u2019s will hold in September. In total, the auction house will attempt to sell 1406 lots which account for roughly 30,000 unique objects, according to Williams. The presale estimate of \u00a37.6 million to \u00a311.3 million was surpassed by the first auction alone.<\/p>\n The entirety of the sale was consigned by Mercury\u2019s longtime friend Mary Austin, who inherited his London home and many of his belongings. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.<\/p>\n When the sale was announced, Austin released a statement that read in part: \u201cFor many years now, I have had the joy and privilege of living surrounded by all the wonderful things that Freddie sought out and so loved. But the years have passed, and the time has come for me to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u2018Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own\u2019 evening sale at Sotheby\u2019s in London. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n There were early indicators that the evening sale would be a success. Since opening an exhibition of Mercury\u2019s belongings in early August, a record 140,000 people queued up\u2014often in lines that stretched around the block\u2014to visit Sotheby\u2019s London headquarters.<\/p>\n \u201cI was fortunate enough to allow the first members of the public through into the gallery,\u201d says Williams. \u201cOne woman came bedecked in her own version of [Mercury\u2019s] iconic arrow jacket, which was something she\u2019d sewn herself relying on grainy images. To put her in front of the real thing \u2026 she was speechless.\u201d That \u201cset the tone for the next four weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n The crowds weren\u2019t just in-person. Sotheby\u2019s opened up online bidding in advance of every auction but the evening sale. To date, over 19,000 bids have been placed across those five sales, according to a Sotheby\u2019s representative, and the auction house site has had more than 600,000 unique visitors, \u201cwhich is traffic we\u2019ve never seen before and likely will never see again,\u201d Williams says.<\/p>\n All of that attention \u201ctranslates instantaneously into hard bids,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Before the auction began, the entire room, including auction house specialists in black tie, banged their hands to the Queen song \u2018We Will Rock You.\u2019<\/p>\n On Wednesday night, the crowds were once again in force: 2000 people registered to bid in advance of the sale. \u201cAs you can probably anticipate, it had to be a ticketed event, and there\u2019s an overflow auxiliary room to accommodate one of the biggest audiences we\u2019ve ever had on Bond Street,\u201d says Williams.<\/p>\n The audience seemed to get the memo. Before the auction began, the entire room, including auction house specialists in black tie, banged their hands to the Queen song \u201cWe Will Rock You.\u201d At one point in the sale the auctioneer stopped proceedings and asked a bidder to stand up and show the crowd her own version of the \u201carrow\u201d jacket.<\/p>\n A Yamaha G2 Baby Grand Piano which was used by Freddie Mercury to develop and hone the track Bohemian Rhapsody, on display August 3, in London. <\/span>Credit: <\/span>PA<\/cite><\/p>\n Festive as the audience might have looked, the bidding got serious, fast. As is customary with most celebrity estate sales, the valuations were based \u201caccording to their market value in the current climate,\u201d Williams explains, meaning that many of the valuations were (particularly in retrospect) absurdly low. A kimono Mercury wore on stage carried an estimate of \u00a36,000 to \u00a39,000 and sold for \u00a357,150; a blue Lalique vase carried a high estimate of \u00a310,000 and sold for \u00a382,550. A large standing screen had a high estimate of \u00a312,000 and sold for \u00a3190,500. (Estimates do not include auction fees known as the buyer\u2019s premium, but totals do.)<\/p>\n One of the most active bidders in the room was a woman who later, in an interview, identified herself as Min Zhu, an arts patron and the owner of an IT company. Zhu bid on, and won, a bust of Diana (\u00a388,900), a Daum vase (\u00a345,720), and the \u00a3190,500 screen. A self-professed lover of Queen, Zhu saw the movie Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> twice.<\/p>\n \u201cI love auctions, they\u2019re like a game,\u201d she says, speaking through a translator. Zhu says she also bid on a Mir\u00f3 print, which the auctioneer actually took off the podium to show her up close in the middle of the sale; she was willing to bid up to \u00a360,000 for it, she says, but it ended up selling, with premium, for \u00a388,900.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have bid on more lots,\u201d Zhu says. \u201cBut I know there were other fans in the room who wanted a piece of Queen and Freddie Mercury.\u201d<\/p>\n There was steady bidding for many of the objects, but the room seemed to erupt every time a piece that directly referenced Mercury came up for sale. At times, bidding was so furious that TV screens in the auction room had the appearance of a Las Vegas slot machine, with prices escalating higher and higher. In one instance, auctioneer Oliver Barker was calling numbers so fast that he stopped, laughing, and said, \u201cit\u2019s like bingo up here.\u201d<\/p>\n After aggressive bidding from people in the room, on the phone, and online, the silver snake bangle that Mercury wore in the Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> music video (high estimate: \u00a39,000) sold for a stunning \u00a3698,500. Similarly, bidding began at \u00a3500,000 for the autographed draft lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> which carried a hefty \u00a31.2 million high estimate. The lyrics contain an early, alternative title for the song: Mongolian Rhapsody<\/em>. A dedicated handful of bidders slowly pushed it to a \u00a31.38 million total.<\/p>\n And then there was Mercury\u2019s cloak and crown, which he wore on the Magic Tour<\/em> at the end of (nearly) every concert, and which produced some of the most memorable images of Mercury\u2019s career. It carried an estimate of \u00a360,000 to \u00a380,000, but interest was so great that within minutes its price had risen to \u00a3300,000. With premiums, the outfit finally hammered for \u00a3500,000\u2014 premiums pushed it up to its \u00a3635,000 total.<\/p>\n The star lot of the sale, though, was a Yamaha grand piano which Sotheby\u2019s\u2014with uncharacteristic immodesty\u2014called \u201cthe instrument used to compose some of the greatest songs of the 20th century.\u201d Carrying an estimate of \u00a32 million to \u00a33 million, bidding began at just \u00a340,000. Bids were numerous, but despite widespread enthusiasm, its final price\u2014\u00a31.74 million\u2014didn\u2019t quite fall within estimates.<\/p>\n Stage costumes and kimonos worn by Freddie Mercury are displayed at Sotheby\u2019s auction rooms in London in August.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Works of art also landed softly. The evening sale was characterised by the comparatively lofty estimates set for serious paintings and decorative objects, some of which are not exactly in keeping with contemporary taste.<\/p>\n A painting by Eugen von Blaas of a woman holding a rose was estimated between \u00a370,000 and \u00a390,000, and failed to sell after seemingly not attracting a single bid.<\/p>\n At the end of the sale, Sotheby\u2019s \u201creopened\u201d the lot, and someone purchased it for \u00a369,850. And a gilt kingwood bookcase from about 1900 carried an estimate of \u00a330,000 to \u00a350,000, and after anemic bidding sold for just \u00a325,400.<\/p>\n The final lot of the night (that is, before the unsold painting was offered again) was arguably the most personal: an archive of about 265 photographs, primarily from the 1980s, which showed Mercury clowning around and relaxing at home with friends and family.<\/p>\n A lot note specified that the photos were sold for private use only; the buyer had no right to reproduce the images or put them to commercial use. The lot\u2019s buyer, in other words, would be purchasing them simply to look at and admire. The photo archive carried a high estimate of \u00a37,000 and fierce bidding erupted almost immediately. When the dust had settled the images had sold for \u00a388,900.<\/p>\n As the room burst into applause when the gavel came down, Barker thanked the crowd for coming.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going into this last lot, and then the music\u2019s going on very loud,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Long lines<\/h3>\n
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Serious bidding<\/h3>\n
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A final note<\/h3>\n