From a guitar described as "the physical manifestation of the break up of Oasis" to clothes belonging to some of the most famous names in music history, read on as we look at some of the world's most incredible music memorabilia. All dollar values in US dollars.

Estimates for the auction price of Jimi Hendrix’s legendary guitar from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival floated from the hundreds of thousands right up to a cool million, but the torched instrument eventually sold for £237,000 ($312,500) in 2012. Hendrix had planned on smashing the guitar while performing Wild Thing, but The Who's Pete Townshend had already used the move earlier in the night. Wanting to pull a unique stunt, Hendrix doused his guitar in lighter fluid and flicked a match at it instead.

Another piece of memorabilia formerly owned by the late King of Pop is the famous silver glove, which sold for $350,000 (£267k) at an auction back in 2009. Pre-sale estimates valued the accessory at $50,000, but the highest bidder – Hong Kong businessman Hoffman Ma – paid seven times that amount, plus commission. The glove featured in a sale held at the Hard Rock Café in New York’s Times Square just a couple of months after the pop legend passed away in 2009.

In May this year, a guitar that's been described as "the physical manifestation of the break up" of British band Oasis sold for £326,909 ($405k) at auction in Paris. Played by Noel Gallagher, the instrument was smashed up in 2009 during a row between Noel and his brother Liam – who never played together again and claim not to have spoken in a decade. The damaged guitar, which was carefully restored before the sale, was bought by an anonymous European buyer.

This month, a bass guitar belonging to Paul McCartney broke records when it sold at auction for $496,100 (£374k) – the highest price ever paid for a bass. McCartney played the Yamaha BB-1200 in the band Wings (he's pictured here on stage with it in 1979). It was one of the biggest money-makers in the auction, which was organised by record producer Bob Ezrin and U2's The Edge to raise funds for Music Rising. The charity aims to "benefit musicians in the Gulf South" after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and now the COVID-19 pandemic, have affected musical communities. 

Experts were shocked when Prince’s iconic 'Blue Angel' guitar went up for auction, as it had long been considered lost. Auction house Julien’s Auctions didn’t know what it was handling when it initially listed it as a “custom-made 1984 blue Cloud guitar used by Prince”, but it wasn’t long before it was recognised as the most significant Prince-related memorabilia the world had ever seen. As a result, the hammer came down at $563,000 (£430k) in June 2020.

Anything associated with Britain’s best-known band is a sure-fire money spinner, and this guitar, played by both George Harrison and John Lennon, is no exception. The instrument is a Gibson SG and was favoured by Harrison between 1966 and 1969. Lennon also used the guitar when the band was recording music for the White Album, which contributed to its impressive value of $567,500 (£433k).

The electric guitar Elvis Presley played on his 1968 TV special, which acted as the King of Rock 'n' Roll's comeback performance (pictured) after seven years of starring in films, sold at auction for $625,000 (£472k). Elvis had borrowed the red Hagstrom Viking II electric guitar from his session musician Al Casey for the special broadcast that relaunched his music career, and he went on to play it at live performances in Las Vegas the following year. It also featured on the cover of Elvis' 1969 album From Elvis in Memphis. The guitar was never owned by Elvis, and it was eventually returned to Casey, who sold it to a collector. The electric guitar had not been seen in public for 52 years before it went up for auction.

Like Elvis Presley's guitar, Eric Clapton's 1968 Martin D-45 acoustic guitar also sold for $625,000 (£472k) at auction. The British musician played the instrument during his stage debut with blues-rock band Derek and the Dominos in 1970. The guitar – which was the most expensive item at Julien's Auction's 'Icons & Idols: Rock 'N' Roll' auction in Los Angeles in December 2021 – came complete with its original case, a signed letter of provenance, and an assortment of albums.

Speaking of the White Album, Ringo Starr claimed The Beatles’ first ever copy of it, numbered 0000001, while Harrison, Lennon and McCartney owned the next three. The album was sold in 2015 when Starr auctioned off a collection of his possessions, including clothing, jewellery, and instruments. Bidding for the mono copy of the album maxed out at $790,000 (£603k), and a portion of the proceeds went to The Lotus Foundation, a charity founded by the drummer and his wife Barbara Bach.

When it comes to The Beatles, it doesn’t even need to be an entire album to be valuable – just the song lyrics alone will go for sky-high prices. This handwritten copy of number one hit Hey Jude was hastily scribbled out by Paul McCartney in 1968, and in April 2020 it sold for a staggering $910,000 (£695k), which was nine times higher than the original estimate.

Eric Clapton's 1968 Martin D-45 isn't the only guitar belonging to the Tears in Heaven singer that's sold for big bucks at auction. Clapton relied on his black Fender Stratocaster for 15 years of his illustrious rock and blues career. It was last seen by the public in 1990 when it played a starring role in a Honda Japan advert, and then it made a special appearance for one song at a Royal Albert Hall performance in London in 1991. The guitar went up for sale through Christie’s auction house in 2004, where its unique history helped it to realise a sale price of $959,500 (£733k). 

Clapton’s was the most expensive guitar ever auctioned, until Bob Dylan’s sunburst Fender Stratocaster appeared in 2013. It was iconic to fans, who would have recognised the guitar from the legend's performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 (pictured). Christie’s auction house estimated that the instrument would sell for around $400,000 (£305k), but a bidding war drove the price up to $965,000 (£737k). Before going up for auction, the guitar had spent half a century in the possession of a pilot’s family – cabin crew had discovered it abandoned on a private plane being used by Dylan and, after receiving no response from management about returning it, the pilot kept it.

You can’t be a rock star without a slick car to complete the look, and Keith Richards’ vehicle of choice was this 1965 Bentley S3 Continental Flying Spur, known as the 'Blue Lena'. Richards named the vehicle after his favourite American singer Lena Horne but, after multiple accidents, he went on to sell the car in 1978. Following five years of restorations, 'Blue Lena' was back in tip-top condition ready for auction in 2010, where a keen Rolling Stones fan snapped her up for £763,100 ($999k). Rock 'n' roll through and through, the Bentley is even rumoured to have a compartment for storing illegal substances.

Back to The Beatles, with another Ringo-related piece bringing in the big money. This hand-painted drum skin was advertised as “the world’s most famous drum skin” by auction house Christie’s, as its image can be found on the front of every copy of the band’s 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The one-of-a-kind skin sold for $1.1 million (£840k) in 2008 and was the star lot in a pop and rock auction.

This instrument comes with a heart-wrenching back story, as it was the violin used to calm passengers of the Titanic as the ship sank back in 1912. Its player, Wallace Hartley, died along with 1,517 other passengers, but remarkably the violin survived. Bidding started at a mere £50 ($65) for this emblematic slice of the Titanic’s history, but within 10 minutes a fierce telephone war reached a momentous conclusion, with the winner agreeing to pay £900,000 ($1.17m) for the violin.

Time for more song lyrics by The Beatles, but this set for A Day in the Life, which was the last track on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, made it past the $1 million mark. The lyrics were predicted to sell for around $650,000 (£496k), but the lot exceeded all expectations when it fetched almost twice that amount in 2010. The band’s road manager Malcolm Evans had owned the manuscript before taking it to auction, and it was matted, framed, and double glazed to ensure it stayed in good shape.

The guitars of legends make up much of the music world’s priciest memorabilia, and you can’t get more iconic than the King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley. Auctioned off in August 2020, Elvis’ 1942 Martin D-18 guitar made the record books when it sold for an incredible $1.32 million (£1m), making it the most expensive piece of Presley memorabilia. The King bought the instrument back in 1954 in Memphis and used it on such classic hits such as That’s All Right and Blue Moon of Kentucky.

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A marque favoured by the wealthy, Porsches aren’t known for being a budget buy – especially when they’ve been owned by rock royalty. Janis Joplin hand-painted this car herself, embellishing it with birds, butterflies, skulls and mushrooms, making it a true one-off. So it's not surprise that this psychedelic Porsche broke records by selling for $1.76 million (£1.3m) in 2015, which is more than any other car of its make. 

Perhaps the most recognisable piece of pop memorabilia there is going, Michael Jackson’s black and red jacket thrilled fans when it went up for auction in 2011. The jacket was one of two worn for Jackson’s ground-breaking music video for Thriller, and this autographed version was snapped up for $1.8 million (£1.4m). The buyer was a gold trader from Texas, Milton Verret, who planned on using the jacket to raise money for children’s hospitals.

Charities often benefit from the sale of big-ticket music memorabilia, and Jerry Garcia’s guitar 'Wolf' raised millions of dollars for the American civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center. The guitar got its name after the Grateful Dead frontman attached a wolf sticker as a joke, and he later got a permanent wolf motif added to the instrument. In 2017, more than two decades after Garcia’s death, 'Wolf' fetched $1.9 million (£1.4m) at auction.

RCA Records represents some of today’s best-known artists, but Elvis Presley was arguably the biggest name on its books. The record label gifted The King this Omega watch when he hit the milestone of 75 million record sales, and the watch itself went on to break records in 2018 when it sold for 1.8 million Swiss francs ($2m/£1.5m) including premiums, which is the highest price ever paid for an Omega.

Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics for Like A Rolling Stone smashed records in 2014 when they sold for $2 million (£1.5m). The manuscript was an annotated copy of the song, which was considered one of the most influential of its era, and was taken home by an anonymous private buyer. That particular Sotheby’s auction featured a whole host of musical memorabilia, including Elvis’ peacock jumpsuit, which went for $245,000 (£186k), and Bruce Springsteen’s lyrics for Thunder Road, which fetched $37,500 (£28.5k).

The album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was a unique concept concocted by hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan, as only one single copy was made and then auctioned off to the highest bidder – if they so chose, the winner could have been the only person to listen to those 31 tracks. The highest bidder, Martin Shkreli, added a layer of controversy to this bizarre offering in that he was the pharmaceuticals exec responsible for hiking up the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat AIDS. Shkreli paid $2 million (£1.5m) for the one-of-a-kind album in 2016, but it was seized by the US authorities as Shkreli was investigated for fraud and subsequently sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018. 

This drum kit was played by Ringo Starr in more than 200 performances in 1963 and 1964, as well as when recording some of The Beatles’ earliest hits. The Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit was bought by a mystery owner of an unspecified American NFL team for a whopping $2.2 million (£1.7m) in 2015.

The piano John Lennon used to write Imagine was bought in 2001 for $2.2 million (£1.7m). The winning bidder was pop sensation George Michael who purchased it to prevent it from going into storage, as he thought it deserved to be seen by the public. The Wham! frontman had hoped to incorporate the instrument into some of his own songs, before ensuring it was safely delivered to The Beatles Story exhibition in Liverpool, England.

It isn’t just John Lennon’s instruments that fans are desperate to acquire. In 1985, the musician’s Rolls-Royce car was auctioned off for $2.3 million (£1.7m), which is the equivalent of $5.5 million (£4.2m) in today’s money. The yellow Phantom V was bought by Canadian business magnate Jim Pattison, who wanted to feature the vehicle at the 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication in Vancouver. Lennon and Yoko Ono had donated the car to the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York to be used as a fundraising aid, with tremendous success.

The last and priciest piece of Beatles memorabilia in this round-up is the guitar used by John Lennon on the band’s debut single Love Me Do. The long-lost Gibson K-160E surfaced at Julien’s Auctions and surpassed its initial estimate of $800,000 (£608k) by quite a margin when it went to an anonymous buyer for $2.4 million (£1.7m) in 2015. Lennon first bought the guitar back in 1962 from Rushworth’s Music House in Liverpool, England for £161 – the equivalent of £3,287 ($4.3k) in today’s money.

While it hasn’t publicly been played by any legends of the music world, a charity Fender Stratocaster bearing the signatures of the biggest names in rock, including Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards managed to sell for a huge price. The stars came together to sign this guitar in aid of Reach Out to Asia, a non-profit that works with children hit by crisis across the continent. The instrument was a big hit, and was purchased in 2006 for the royal sum of $2.8 million (£2.1m) by Her Highness Sheihka Miyyassah Al Thani (pictured), the 14th daughter of the Qatar royal family and “the undisputed queen of the art world”, according to Forbes.

The Olympic Games is the world’s greatest stage for the sporting elite, and with over 2 billion people – nearly a third of the world’s population – having tuned in to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games in 2008, it’s unsurprising that mementos from that night have become collector’s pieces. The crystal piano with which classical musician Lang Lang serenaded the crowds was auctioned off for 22 million Chinese yuan in 2009, which is the equivalent of $3.2 million (£2.4m).

Another set of guitars made millions for charity in 2019 when Pink Floyd's David Gilmour decided to sell off his entire collection. In total, the auction raised a staggering $21.5 million (£16.3m) to go towards climate change charities, and included Gilmour’s favourite guitar, the C.F. Martin & Company Nazareth 1969 D-35 acoustic. The real star of the show however was his 'Black Strat', which fetched $3.97 million (£3m). The guitar featured on Pink Floyd songs such as Comfortably Numb and Money, as well as albums from Gilmour’s solo career. 

In May this year, the guitar played by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain in the 1991 music video for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' sold for $4.5 million (£3.5m). Part of an auction held at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, the left-handed guitar was bought by Jim Irsay, CEO of the NFL team Indianapolis Colts. A percentage of the money he spent will be donated to a mental health charity, a fact Irsay said "makes this acquisition even more special to me." Cobain once described the iconic guitar as his favourite "out of all the guitars in the whole world."

In 2001, this life-sized statue of Michael Jackson and his pet chimp Bubbles sold for $5.6 million (£4.3m) through auction house Sotheby’s. That's the equivalent of $8.2 million (£6.2m) in today's money. Jeff Koons’ take on the King of Pop set a new record as his most expensive piece yet, however the artist has long since surpassed that figure. In 2019, he sold his sculpture Rabbit for an eye-watering $91 million (£69m), making it the most expensive piece of art created by a living artist.

Dipping back into the classical world, Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony score became the most expensive piece of written music ever sold when the hammer came down at £4.5 million ($5.9m) at a Sotheby’s auction in 2016. The handwritten score is made up of 232 pages, and four telephone bidders battled it out to own this Mahler masterpiece, which dates back to 1817.

Personal possessions can very easily be worth millions when associated with the right rock stars, but none are worth quite as much as the guitar played by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged performance. The second Cobain guitar in our round-up, this instrument became the most expensive guitar ever sold, selling for an incredible $6 million (£4.6m) in June 2020. Unlike most high-end bidders, the new owner of the iconic guitar was happy to be identified as Peter Freedman of RØDE Microphones. The Australian music entrepreneur plans to exhibit the guitar across the world, with all proceeds going towards the performing arts.

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