The green sweater Kurt Cobain famously wore during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance has officially become the most expensive sweater ever sold at auction, selling for a whopping $334,000 on Saturday (Oct. 26) — more than double what it sold for just four years ago.
The cardigan, which Julien’s Auctions describes as “a blend of acrylic, mohair and Lycra with five-button closure (one button absent), with two exterior pockets, a burn hole and discoloration near left pocket and discoloration on right pocket,” sold for $137,500 back in November 2015.
“It’s very important that we don’t wash it,” Darren Julien of Julien’s Auctions told Rolling Stone. “The stains are still there. There’s even cigarettes burns that you can see on the sweater.”
The sweater — which was accompanied by a handwritten letter from Jackie Farry, who nannied Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean and was gifted the item of clothing by Courtney Love after Cobain’s death in 1994 — wasn’t the only big-ticket Nirvana item at the auction. Cobain’s custom-built Fender Mustang guitar, which he played on the In Utero tour, sold for $340,000.
The “Icons & Idols: Rock ‘N’ Roll” auction also featured memorabilia from other iconic artists, including Elvis Presley’s gold Mercedes (which sold for $125,00), a David Bowie self-portrait (which went for $51,000), and Bernie Taupin’s handwritten lyrics for the Elton John classic “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (which sold for $75,000).
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