Mark Knopfler guitar reaches over £400k at auction with all funds going to Teenage Cancer Trust
Melanie May | 2 February 2024 | News
A guitar owned by Mark Knopfler has achieved over £400,000 at auction, more than twenty times its estimate of £20,000-40,000, with all the funds raised going to Teenage Cancer Trust, which Knopfler is a patron of.
The Gibson Les Paul ‘Gold Top’ was signed by 33 music stars, including Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Slash, Ronnie Wood, Brian May, Sting, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen, The Edge, Joan Jett, and Nile Rodgers, and achieved £403,000 at auction with Christies.
It was the final lot of an auction of guitars from the personal collection of Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler. All 122 lots sold, realising a total of £8,840,160, including buyer’s premium. The sale was led by Knopfler’s 1959 Vintage Gibson Les Paul Standard which sold for £693,000, setting a new world auction record for the model.
Advertisement
Music aficionados, fans and collectors from 61 countries registered to bid, with the auction lasting for more than six hours.
25% of the total hammer price will be divided equally and donated to charities that Mark Knopfler has supported for many years: The British Red Cross, Tusk and Brave Hearts of the North East. 100% of the funds raised from the final lot are being donated to Teenage Cancer Trust. In addition, Christie’s is contributing a further £50,000 to each of the four charities.
Mark Knopfler said:
“This auction has been an incredible journey and I am so pleased that these much loved instruments will find new players and new songs as well as raising money for charities that mean a lot to me. All Christie’s staff have been hugely impressive in every respect.
“It has been heart-warming to witness how much these guitars mean to so many people and I am also pleased that they will continue to give joy to many through the songs recorded over the years with me. To you fellow players, enthusiasts and collectors, I wish you all good things.”
Amelia Walker, Christie’s Specialist Head of Private and Iconic Collections, London, said:
“We are absolutely thrilled with the outstanding result of this auction, a testament to the phenomenal global appeal of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. Christie’s London has been buzzing with music and excitement for the last two weeks, and the exhibition has drawn fans from around the world. The auction saw an unprecedented number of bidders register to take part. We feel privileged to have been entrusted by Mark to find new owners for his old ‘friends’, some of which appear on his upcoming new album One Deep River to be released in April, and to have helped raise money for his chosen charities.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.