David Gilmour‘s “Black Strat” sold for $14.55 million on Thursday at Christie’s auction for the Jim Irsay collection in New York. The sale of the guitar marked the most expensive guitar ever sold, besting the $6 million sale in 2020 of the 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar Kurt Cobain played during Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance.
Gilmour’s guitar was vital in the recording of seminal Pink Floyd albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979). He used the guitar when recording the songs “Money,” “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” and for his solo on “Comfortably Numb.” It was estimated to fetch $2 to $4 million prior to the auction commencing.
Irsay first bought the Black Strat at auction at Christie’s in June 2019 for a reported $5.245 million, which had set a new record for a guitar at the time. Gilmour spoke to Rolling Stone about selling the “Black Strat,” which was among the 120 guitars he auctioned off for charity. “These guitars have been very good to me,” he told us. “They’re my friends. They have given me lots of music. I just think it’s time that they went off and served someone else.”
As for parting with his “Black Strat,” Gilmour told us, “For me, I can let go of it. It’s going to bring a lot of people to have a look at this sale, and it’s going to do that job. It’s a lovely guitar. It has been on pretty much all the Pink Floyd albums through the Seventies… it’s on so much stuff, but Fender have made replica ones that they sell, and I have two or three of those that are absolutely perfect. One of those might be my future guitar of choice or even, horror of horror, maybe I’ll even change the color.”
Jerry Garcia’s guitar “Tiger,” which was custom-made by Luthier Doug Irwin fetched $11.56 million. It was one of Garcia’s drivers, he played it from 1979-1989 and he played it during his final performance with the Grateful Dead at Chicago’s Soldier Field on July 9, 1995. It was expected to sell for $1 to $2 million.
Christie’s The Jim Irsay Collection runs from March 3 to March 17. The aforementioned guitars sold Thursday during “The Jim Irsay Collection: Icons of Popular Culture” live auction. The series of sales is billed to include “One of the greatest troves of memorabilia ever assembled, meticulously compiled over decades by the late philanthropist, passionate music lover, and owner and CEO of the Indianapolis Colts. A portion of the proceeds of these sales will be donated to philanthropic causes supported by Jim Irsay during his lifetime.”
This article was updated on March 12, 2026, at 11:42 p.m. ET to indicate the full price, including auction fees, for David Gilmour’s ‘Black Strat’ reflected on the Christie’s website.
