One of the greatest collections of modern popular music, movie and sports artifacts will be sold at a series of four sales in March that seem sure to set new records.
The Jim Irsay Collection was built by the American businessman best known as the CEO of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team.
Ursay died last year aged just 65. Among the items in his collection is the original copy of the Big Book that guides the Alcoholics Anonymous organisation and he had a well-documented history of suffering from addiction.
Christie’s will sell the Jim Irsay Collection in a series of four sales in New York from March 12 to March 17: Hall of Fame, Icons of Pop Culture, Icons of Music, and an online sale concluding on March 17.
Although a catalogue is yet to be released, the contents of the Irsay Collection are well known, and have been regularly loaned to museums.
The Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang is already one of history’s most valuable guitars and could well become more valuable this year. Image courtesy of Christie’s.
Among the highlights of the sale are likely to be:
Kurt Cobain’s Competition Mustang played in the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit. Irsay bought it for $4.5 million in 2022. Christie’s say it will sell for up to $5 million.
The “Black Strat” played by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd that was sold for $3,975,000 in 2019. It has a $2 million to $4 million estimate.
John Lennon’s Rose-Morris Rickenbacker (Irsay said the Beatles were his favourite act) that was sold at a charity sale by Ringo Starr for $900,000 in 2015.
Ringo’s own Ludwig drum used from May 1963 to February 1964 is expected to make between $1 million and $2 million. A Beatles logo drum head played in the epochal Ed Sullivan Show appearance in February 1964 carries the same estimate.
Elsewhere, the roled “scroll” on which Jack Kerouac hammered out Beat-classic novel On the Road, Muhammad Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle” title belt, and much, much more will be listed.
Christie’s say: “This unparalleled collection will be offered across four major auctions, giving collectors the rarest of opportunities to become the next custodians of objects that have inspired generations and continue to shine as beacons of our shared creative legacy.”
With too many highlights to name, this sale looks set to be one of the defining events of the collecting year in 2026. Interested parties are sure to be setting their budgets for some of the most important items in modern cultural history right now.
Some may vanish into private collections. Others may make it into permanent museum homes.
