LONDON – Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler will sell off a collection of guitars he considers “old friends” at a Christie’s auction in London next year.
The musician, whose distinctive finger-picking style drove hits for the British rockers including “Sultans of Swing” and “Money for Nothing,” is putting 120 guitars and amps up for sale in London on Jan. 31, the auction house said Tuesday.
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Estimated sale prices range from 300 pounds ($375) for an electric-acoustic mandolin to 500,000 pounds ($625,000) for a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard with a cherry red sunburst finish. A 1983 Les Paul that Knopfler played on Dire Straits’ chart-topping 1985 album “Brothers in Arms” and onstage that year at Live Aid has an estimated price of 10,000 to 15,00 pounds.
Knopfler said the collection was the product of his 60-year “love affair” with guitars, but it was time to relinquish “some of these treasured six-string companions.”
“You can be sure I’ll be sad to see them go but we’ve had wonderful times together and I can’t play them all,” he said. ”To you fellow players, enthusiasts and collectors, I wish you many good times with these old friends of mine.”
The instruments will go on public display at Christie’s New York showroom Dec. 9 to 13, and at the auctioneer’s London headquarters from Jan. 19 to 30, 2024.
A quarter of the sale total will go to the British Red Cross and other charities.