As you may recall, back in January we shared that David Gilmour’s Black Strat, owned since 2019 by Jim Irsay, longtime owner of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, would be returning to auction following Irsay’s passing. Irsay had acquired the guitar during Christie’s landmark 2019 sale of 126 instruments from Gilmour’s personal collection, which raised funds for the environmental charity ClientEarth.

Today, the legendary Black Strat, played on such Floyd classics as “Money,” “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” and “Comfortably Numb,” sold for $14.5 million (including fees) at Christie’s in New York, making it the most expensive guitar ever sold. With a pre-sale estimate of $2 to $4 million, even the wildest predictions could not have imagined the guitar reaching such an unprecedented price.

Irsay previously purchased the guitar for $3,975,000 during Christie’s 2019 auction of 126 items from David’s personal collection, which raised funds for ClientEarth.

Another highlight from today’s sale was David’s Martin D-35, the acoustic used to record Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” The instrument fetched an impressive $2.3 million, far surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.

With today’s result, the Black Strat once again becomes the most expensive guitar ever sold, more than doubling the previous record held by Kurt Cobain’s Martin D-18E, famously played during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance.

A huge congratulations to the winners, wherever they may be!