The stains are still there. There’s even cigarettes burns that you can see on the sweater.
For the second time in four years, the green sweater worn by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's MTV 'Unplugged' concert is heading, and yes, the cardigan is unwashed. “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 current owner, a businessman who wishes to remain anonymous, kept the piece stored in acid-free tissue in a safe. The auction house now has it stashed in similar tissue and a plastic case.
The cardigan holds a pre-auction minimum bid set for US$200,000 (£164,000). According to the Julien’s listing, that minimum bid has already been matched, with Cobain’s cardigan expected to reach bids of upwards of US$300,000 (£245,000).
California’s Julien's Auctions are also offering a custom Fender guitar built in 1993, which Cobain used during the band's ‘In Utero’ tour. The turquoise-bodied left-handed guitar was on display for several years at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
According to NME, Julien’s said that rock’n’roll memorabilia has recently become “not just a collector’s market – it’s an investor’s market”.
Cobain, one of the biggest stars of the grunge rock music scene of the early 1990s, was 27 when he killed himself on 5 April 1994.
The items are part of a two-day auction of rock memorabilia, to be held on 25-26 October. Other pieces in the auction include handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen.
