The world’s most expensive guitar, which Kurt Cobain played in one of Nirvana’s most acclaimed performances – the MTV Unplugged in New York show – is to be displayed in the UK for the first time.
The Royal College of Music Museum in London has been loaned the Martin D-18E by its owner, Peter Freedman (the chair of Røde microphones), who bought the guitar for $6m (£4.8m) in 2020, making it the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction.
The Martin D-18E took on mythical status after Cobain used it during Nirvana’s November 1993 MTV Unplugged appearance – a controversial move due to the fact it was supposed to be an acoustic performance and the guitar is an electro-acoustic.
The music journalist and curator Alan di Perna, who worked on the exhibition, said that the guitar, which was one of only 301 copies made in 1959, was an “outcast” just like its owner.
“It’s a very rare instrument and an unsuccessful model,” said Di Perna. “The whole world was going crazy for electric guitars in 1959 and this was Martin’s attempt at making an acoustic guitar electric, and it didn’t really work.”
“It’s one of a kind: the guitar was modified for Cobain’s left-hand playing technique, an extra pickup was added by his guitar tech … In a way it’s kind of an outcast like Kurt himself. It’s a suitable guitar for him in a lot of ways.”
Cobain played the guitar for many of the songs during the MTV performance, which – despite pressure from the broadcaster on the band to play their greatest hits – featured several covers, including David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World, Lead Belly’s version of the traditional Where Did You Sleep Last Night? and three songs by the relatively unknown band the Meat Puppets, who also played during the performance.
The recording took on greater significance because Cobain killed himself five months later at home in Seattle, and after his death MTV played the Unplugged show regularly. “The show was on heavy rotation after his death and this is before the internet, so if you wanted to grieve you would have put on this performance. It was burned into the collective consciousness of rock music,” said Di Perna.
“I put it up there with the Beatles on the roof of Apple Records in London. Just imagine if John Lennon died five months after that performance? How powerful would that be? That’s what we have with Nirvana Unplugged.”
Cobain was very hands-on, and ensured his aesthetic ideas were used, influencing the way the performance was presented. “He took control of the visual aspects of the productions,” said Di Perna. “He wanted flowers, he wanted candles; the producer of the show asked him if he wanted it to be like a funeral and he said ‘yes’.”
The exhibition, which opens on 3 June, also features the green cardigan Cobain wore during the MTV Unplugged gig, which sold for $334,000 (£260,388) at auction in 2019, making it the most expensive button-up to go under the hammer.
Cobain’s former partner, Courtney Love, gave the cardigan, described by the Guardian’ fashion and lifestyle editor Morwenna Ferrier as “a moth-eaten, oversized acrylic, mohair and Lycra mix”, to the couple’s former nanny as a gift, and also told Billboard magazine that the Martin D-18E was the last guitar Cobain ever played.
“The cardigan was indicative of Kurt’s preference for thrift-shop fare, which comes from the punk aesthetic and finding value in what society has cast off,” Di Perna said.
“In the early days of the band they didn’t have much money but the fact he continued to wear it after the band became famous is a statement in its own right. He’s saying: ‘This is where I come from, it’s an alternative scene and this is the way I dress.’”
Cobain’s cardigans have inspired clothing lines, such as the “Kurtigan” from the Japanese brand Manastash.
