Sotheby's specialist Dr. Gabriel Heaton stands next to Freddie Mercury's treasured Yamaha Baby Grand Piano (estimate £2,000,000-3,000,000) on which he composed over a decade of hits during a photocall at Sotheby's auction house for the unveiling of Freddie Mercury's entire private collection ahead of an exhibition and six dedicated sales in London, United Kingdom on August 03, 2023. ( Wiktor Szymanowicz - Anadolu Agency )
ATHENS
Freddie Mercury’s Yamaha baby grand piano was sold for £1.74 million ($2.2 million), a British music news outlet reported on Thursday.
“The piano went up sale without a reserve price and was expected to fetch between £2 and £3m. It didn't quite hit that mark but still went for the tidy sum of £1.74m,” Musicradar said.
The late frontman of British rock band Queen had purchased the Yamaha C2 baby grand piano in 1975 and it remained with him for the rest of his life, according to MusicRadar.
“It’s believed that the C2 was the piano on which Freddie developed Bohemian Rhapsody, a song he was working on in 1975, and he continued to compose on it throughout his career,” it said.
Furthermore, Mercury’s handwritten draft lyrics for the Bohemian Rhapsody were also included in the auction and sold for £1.37 million.
Other lyric sheets sold included To Love (£241,300), Killer Queen (£279,400) and We Are the Champions (£317,500), according to the outlet.
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