Kurt Cobains iconic green sweater from his Unplugged performance sold for $334k
Embed from Getty Images
It’s hard to believe that Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance was nearly 26 (!) years ago. I wonder how many people were paying attention to Kurt Cobain’s green cardigan, and whether anyone would have predicted that it would someday fetch over $330,000 at an auction:
Late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s iconic MTV Unplugged sweater sold for a whopping $334,000 at auction this past weekend. This, after the sweater’s first buyer wanted to get rid of it. Cobain donned the green cardigan during Nirvana’s Nov. 18, 1993, MTV Unplugged in New York taping.
Pro race team owner Garrett Kletjian first purchased the cardigan at auction for $137,500 in November 2015, perhaps a drop in the bucket compared to the sum it landed just recently. That’s a large part of why Kletjian was willing to let it go, it seems. He also indicated to Rolling Stone last week that the “responsibility” of owning the garment was possibly outstripping its bragging rights. Julien’s Auctions, the same Hollywood house that auctioned the sweater four years ago, was again responsible for the sale this time around.
The sweater’s first owner after Kurt was Jackie Farry, who was Frances’ nanny. Courtney Love gave Farry the sweater after Kurt’s death. Farry kept it until she needed money to pay for cancer treatments. (She got Courtney and Frances’ “OK” before auctioning the sweater.) Also on the auction block was Kurt’s custom Fender Mustang guitar, which he used on the In Utero tour. The guitar sold for a bit more than the sweater, $340,000, though the sweater broke the record for the most expensive sweater ever auctioned.
I hope that whoever has the sweater enjoys it, though it sounds from the Loudwire article and the (admittedly) little that I know about conservation, it’s going to become more difficult to maintain the sweater as time goes on. You don’t want to hang it in the closet and forget about it. I’d also worry if I had it and couldn’t properly store it that it would eventually get stolen. I wonder whether we’ll ever find out who purchased it. Maybe it will end up at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or another museum, which would mean that it could be properly cared for and that lots of fans would have the opportunity to see it.
Photos credit: Getty
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmb2xgZYF0e8quqa2Xk6SvorXNrJaim5%2BjtqSrxqucnqaPqMSmrdOeqZieoqS6oMHNqaOun5easaC8xKudqKqdlruksb6spqWcj5u8s6uSbGukl5GprKLBwq2gqKaPmbyvsY4%3D