Shopping for a car at auction usually means you’re looking for a bargain, but the auctioning of an unglamorous van in New York next month could attract 10s of thousands of dollars.
The reason?
Kurt Cobain once drew on the side of this Dodge Sportsman, which was used as a tour van by US rock band the Melvins.
The Mel-Van is hardly attractive in its own right, though it might be worth a few thousand dollars.
The mural shows Kiss in their trademark make-up. Cobain stole markers to complete it. Image courtesy of Julien’s Auctions.
But the Melvins – who are still going today – were a formative influence on many grunge bands. The band were formed in Washington State, and two members were born in Aberdeen, now best known as the birthplace of Kurt Cobain.
At some time their paths crossed, and a pre-fame Kurt drew a mural on the side of the van showing the make-up-wearing rockers Kiss.
Julien’s Auctions, who are hosting the sale at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on May 30 to 31st, say the mural was witnessed by Kurt’s first girlfriend, Tracy Marander.
They say: “In the book [Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana by Michael Azerrad] Marander recalled her first meeting Kurt, and on a second occasion, a year later, when they were hanging out with their mutual friend, Buzz Osbourne, lead singer and guitarist of the Melvins at his parents’ house: “watching Buzz and Chris drinking Mad Dog. After Kurt left, Buzz informed her that Kurt was the guy who made the really cool Kiss mural on the side of the Melvins’ tour van – known as the Mel-Van – using Magic Markers. Every time a pen ran out, he’d go in to the Shop Rite in Montesano and steal another one. I thought that was kind of cool,” says Tracy.”
After a short, emotional trip for an exhibition in Seattle, the mural has been removed and will be auctioned with an estimate of $20,000 to $40,000.
A rusting monument to life on the road, the Melvan was also known as the Beast and the Mean Machine. Image courtesy of Julien’s Auctions.
The van is being effectively broken up for parts.
The steering wheel has an estimate of $2,000 to $4,000, a value largely attributable to the fact Cobain probably drove the vehicle.
Other parts with a less direct link to the Nirvana frontman are expected to make a couple of thousand of dollars apiece.
Kurt Cobain may be the most valuable single figure in rock collecting currently.
The most valuable guitar ever sold is the Martin acoustic he hammered so passionately in the iconic Unplugged concert just a few months before his death by suicide. That sold for $6 million in 2020.
Will van parts match that figure?
Almost certainly not, but with the right bidder – and the guitar went to a Nirvana museum in Seattle – this unusual example of original Cobain art could easily exceed that estimate.
