Freddie Mercury’s personal items on display: More than 1,400 of Freddie Mercury’s personal items, including his flamboyant stage costumes, handwritten drafts of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and the baby grand piano he used to compose Queen’s finest hits, will be on display at Sotheby’s London in a free exhibition prior to their auction.
Since Mercury’s death in 1991, his vast collection of personal belongings, which he had left to his close companion Mary Austin, had remained undisturbed in his west London mansion for 30 years.
Austin, 72, stated in an April BBC interview that she has decided to sell nearly all of the items in order to “close this very special chapter of my life” and “put my affairs in order.”
There were previously unseen working drafts of the songs “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Somebody to Love” among the hundreds of Mercury’s personal treasures.
Mercury experimented with naming the song “Mongolian Rhapsody” before crossing it out. The handwritten draft of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is anticipated to fetch between 800,000 and 1.2 million pounds ($1 million to $1.5 million).
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A specialist at the auction house, Gabriel Heaton, stated, “We have working lyrics for virtually every song that Freddie Mercury wrote in the 1970s.” We have extensive working drafts that demonstrate how songs evolved, how they altered, and how they took on the most beautiful form.
A manuscript of working lyrics for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” signed by British singer-songwriter Freddie Mercury, is displayed during the media preview for “Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own: The Evening Sale” at Sotheby’s on June 1, 2023. More than 1,500 items from Mercury’s private collection, including costumes, distinctive objects, and draft lyrics, will be auctioned off on September 6-8 in London and August 4-September 8 online. It is anticipated that the auction will generate at least 6 million pounds ($7.5 million).
Freddie Mercury’s personal items on display: Mercury’s cherished Yamaha baby grand piano, which is expected to fetch between 2 and 3 million pounds ($2.5 million and $3.8 million), will be the highlight of the auction. The piano was at the center of Mercury’s musical and personal life from 1975 until his death, according to auctioneers on Thursday.
“Of all the things he owned, this was the most significant to him,” Heaton said.
Numerous highlights demonstrated Mercury’s passion for theater and showmanship. There were his scintillating sequined, skin-tight catsuits, leather jackets, and the extravagant red cape and crown he wore during his final Queen performance in 1986, in addition to his collection of Japanese silk kimonos.
Other items were more personal and confidential, such as a school book bearing the singer’s name from the 1960s, when he and his family had just arrived in the United Kingdom from Zanzibar. Visitors were able to examine Mercury’s elaborate dinner party seating plans and menus, as well as handwritten invitations to his famous birthday parties, including one dated 1977 instructing attendees to “Dress to Kill!”
Mercury’s art collection, which includes works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Marc Chagall, as well as his eclectic antique furniture and numerous cat figurines, are also available for purchase.
“(Mercury) wrote, ‘I enjoy being surrounded by beautiful objects. Thomas Williams, a Sotheby’s furniture and decorative arts specialist, remarked, “I want to live a Victorian lifestyle surrounded by exquisite muddle.
The numerous items have transformed the auction house’s exquisite building in central London into a shrine to Mercury, with all 15 of its galleries devoted to his story. It is the first time that Sotheby’s has opened its entire gallery space to the public for a week-long exhibition, according to Williams, who added that this may be the auction house’s “most democratic sale,” with items such as Mercury’s chopsticks and sewing kit beginning at less than one hundred pounds ($125) each.
“Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own,” a free exhibition, opens this Friday and runs through September 5. The artifacts will subsequently be auctioned off later in the month.
Queen has released a 34-year-old recording featuring Freddie Mercury’s vocals.
Sotheby’s anticipates that purchasers will include institutions such as museums as well as Mercury’s global fanbase. Williams responded that Mercury “didn’t want a stuffy museum” when asked if the rare objects would be better exhibited in a museum or sold individually by lot.
Williams stated, “He communicated this to Mary Austin and his personal assistant.” This is unquestionably the automobile he would have desired.
