Kurt Cobain Self-Portrait From 1992 Sells For Over $281,000 At Auction
The original estimate of the drawing, sold through Julien’s Auctions, was between just $10,000-$20,000 (£7098-£14,197).
A hand-drawn self-portrait by Kurt Cobain in 1992 has sold for over $281,000 (£199,446) at auction.
The caricature depicts the late Nirvana frontman playing a guitar with the caption: “Kurdt Kobain [sic] Rock Star”. The words “I don’t know how to play and I don’t give a hoot!” have also been etched onto the drawing.
Drawn while Nirvana were in Singapore promoting Nevermind in 1992, the self-portrait was originally gifted to Jacque Chong, a freelance photographer who was with Cobain at the time.
The original estimate of the drawing, which was sold over the weekend by Julien’s Auctions, was between just $10,000-$20,000 (£7098-£14,197). The winning bid for the Cobain self-portrait, however, came in at $281,250 following 21 bids.
A range of other rock’n’roll items, including Elton John’s grand piano, numerous items of Little Richard memorabilia and Prince’s electric guitar, was also sold by Julien’s over the weekend – you can check out the lots via Julien’s official website.
This latest Cobain-related sale follows on from another auction last month which saw six strands of the late musician’s hair selling for $14,145 (£10,005). The hair was originally obtained by fan and friend Tessa Osbourne after she gave Cobain a haircut while he was in Birmingham in 1989.
Elsewhere in Nirvana news, Dave Grohl revealed last week that the surviving members of the band still regularly meet up and jam together – which has led to some “really cool” recording sessions.
“Krist Novoselic is a pilot, he flies his own plane… he lives up in the Pacific Northwest and whenever he comes down to Los Angeles, you know, we always love to see each other and we’ll have dinner,” Grohl said in an interview with Howard Stern.
“Last time he was here I made dinner for us and we hung out. Pat‘s always around and the three of us, you know, we like to just be together. We like to see each other and if there are instruments around or a studio that’s available, we’ll just get together and kind of jam, you know?”
Grohl added: “We don’t like run through a big old Nirvana setlist but we do like to fool around and sometimes as we’re fooling around, songs happen. And you know if we’re in a studio, we’ll record them. So we’ve recorded some stuff that’s really cool. But we’ve never done anything with it… it’s more just like friends, jamming around, it doesn’t really seem like any sort of like big official reunion.”
