The guitar played by Kurt Cobain during NIRVANA's acclaimed "MTV Unplugged In New York" performance was sold for a record $6 million at Julien's Auctions' "Music Icons" event. According to Rolling Stone, the guitar received seven bids total, including the winning bid of $6,010,00. The guitar came with its original hard-shell case decorated by Cobain with a flyer from the punk rock band POISON IDEA's 1990 album "Feel The Darkness". Three baggage claim ticket stubs were attached to the handle, along with an Alaska Airlines sticker affixed to the case. The storage compartment of the case also contained Cobain's half used pack of Martin guitar strings, three guitar picks, and his suede "stash" bag decorated with a miniature silver spoon, fork, and knife. The guitar was previously owned by Cobain's daughter Frances Bean Cobain, who reportedly gave it up during an acrimonious divorce from her former husband, musician Isaiah Silva. Cobain played this 1959 Martin D-18E in what would become NIRVANA's most legendary performance. In a live taping for the popular "MTV Unplugged" series on November 18, 1993, approximately five months before his death, Cobain chose this guitar to paint what Rolling Stone called "his last self-portrait." NIRVANA's acoustic performance that night produced one of the greatest live albums of all time, "MTV Unplugged In New York". Cuts from the album, released seven months after Cobain's death, would go on to become the most celebrated and defining versions of NIRVANA's songs, "About A Girl", "All Apologies", "Come As You Are" and "Dumb", as well as covers of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World", THE MEAT PUPPETS' "Lake Of Fire" and a haunting rendition of Lead Belly's "Black Girl" renamed "Where Did You Sleep Last Night". "MTV Unplugged in New York" debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard chart and is consistently ranked among the top ten live albums of all time. Cobain's mastery of this guitar along with NIRVANA's flawless acoustic and vocal performance propelled the "MTV Unplugged In New York" album to multi-platinum certification and won the Grammy Award for "Best Alternative Music Album" in 1996. It was the seventh of only 302 D-18Es built by Martin and was customized by Cobain who added a Bartolini pickup to the soundhole. The starting estimate for the guitar is one million U.S. dollars. "Julien's Auctions is proud to offer this historic guitar from Kurt Cobain, who upended the music industry and pop culture at large with his mythic performance fronting NIRVANA on 'MTV Unplugged In New York'," Darren Julien, president/chief executive officer of Julien's Auctions, previously said in a statement. "This important guitar has earned its rightful place in rock 'n' roll history as the instrument played by one of rock's most influential musicians and icons in one of the greatest and most memorable live performances of all time." Other NIRVANA items sold at the auction included a signed "Nevermind" poster ($56,250); the camera, original negatives and signed original prints, and the copyright from NIRVANA's 1992 SPIN magazine photoshoot ($35,200); and NIRVANA all-access passes ($512 each). Julien's Auctions has broken world records with the sale of Kurt Cobain's memorabilia, including Cobain's cardigan worn on "MTV Unplugged In New York", which sold for a record $334,000, his "In Utero" tour Fender Mustang guitar which sold for $340,000, his cardigan worn on his last photoshoot which sold for $75,000 and a NIRVANA paper plate set list written in Cobain's handwriting which sold for a record $22,400.
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