One of the most significant instruments in pop music history sells for 965 grand.
Before 1965 Dylan was the king of the folkies, and then it happened. At the Newport Folk Festival, Bobby Z. strapped on a sunburst Fender Stratocaster for a three song electric set that divided the crowd. Some dug it, others booed, but the day that Dylan went electric is a pop music milestone.
What happened next is also the stuff of legend. Bob left his guitar, along with lyrics to three songs inside the case, in a private plane after the gig. The pilot contacted Dylan’s management, and allegedly never received a response. He took it home and there it sat for almost fifty years, until his daughter brought it to PBS’s History Detectives last year.
And now the legendary axe is in an anonymous owner’s hands for a cool $965,000, almost twice the auction house’s top estimate. The Newport guitar is now the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction. As for me, the most valuable thing I’ve found on an airplane to date is an in-flight magazine with an unused crossword puzzle.
–photo / AP