The Irsay family made the decision last year to sell the eclectic assortment of historic artifacts Jim Irsay amassed from the worlds of pop culture, American history, literature, music and sports after Irsay’s death in May of 2025.
There are plenty of people who appreciate the items as much as Irsay did.
The collectible media site Cllct is posting on X the results of some of the sales of the first auction of the Jim Irsay Collection — which has been valued by experts to be worth more than $1 billion — by Christie’s New York.
David Gilmour’s “Black Strat” guitar set a record, according to Cllct, selling for $14.55 million, making it the most expensive guitar in the world. Irsay paid $3.97 million for it in 2019.
The Jerry Garcia custom-built “Tiger” guitar sold for $11.56 million, according to Cllct. It was projected to sell for between $1 million and $2 million. Irsay paid $957,000 for it in 2002.
Ringo Starr’s first drum set for the Beatles sold for $2,393,000; Irsay bought it for $175 million in 2015.
Those three items alone totaled more than $28.5 million.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Jim Irsay Collection auction draws record sale for guitar at $14.55 million
Reporting by Nat Newell and Dana Hunsinger Benbow, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
