The final hammer has fallen on the Jeff Beck auction at Christie's, which included over 130 guitars, amps, and tools-of-the-trade that the legendary musician used throughout his quasi-six-decades-long career. With all items sold, the sale generated a total of $10,746,430 (£8,727,284) – which is more than eight times the pre-sale estimates.
“We are thrilled with the results of Jeff Beck’s incredible collection, which pay testament to the legacy of a genius – a globally-revered true rock legend,” comments Amelia Walker, Christie’s Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections, London. “Passionate bidders competed for every lot in the sale, with each achieving many multiples of their pre-sale estimate.”
Leading the sale was Jeff Beck's iconic 1954 ‘Oxblood’ Gibson Les Paul, which sold for around $1,315,708 (£1,068,500) – double its initial estimate. It broke the world auction record for the most expensive Gibson Les Paul ever sold – a title previously held by Duane Allman's 1957 Gibson Les Paul, which sold for $1.25 million in 2019.
Speaking of Les Pauls, Beck's 1959 ‘Yardburst’ Gibson Les Paul Standard – which harks back to the guitarist’s days with the Yardbirds – fetched $496,484 (£403,200), smashing its $49,000-74,000 pre-sale estimate.
More records were broken with the sale of ‘Tina,’ the hot pink 1983 Jackson Soloist Beck used on Tina Turner’s Private Dancer album. The iconic guitar, which comes with Turner's switchblade-scratched autograph, was sold for over 36 times its pre-sale high estimate – $14,776 (£12,000) – realizing $543,029 (£441,000) and making it the most expensive Jackson ever sold at auction.
His pedalboard, which was used on Beck’s final tour in 2022, also broke records, selling for $155,151 (£126,000) – well over its initial $3,694-6,156 (£3,000-5,000) estimate.
Other noteworthy sales include Beck's 1990/1993 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster ‘Anoushka’ – named after the sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar – which fetched an astounding $1,241,211 (£1,008,000) (pre-sale estimate: $24,627– 36,940).
Walker cites Anoushka's sale as epitomizing “the power of Jeff’s live performances and the emotional connection between him. ‘Anoushka’ sparked a 9-minute bidding battle, achieving £1,008,000 – 50 times the pre-sale low estimate.”
His custom ‘Tele-Gib’ – the ’59 Fender Tele/Les Paul hybrid with Seymour Duncan pickups – continued to exceed expectations, selling for $853,332 (against a pre-sale estimate of $123,000), while his iconic 1960 Olympic White Fender Stratocaster – the guitar that's, perhaps, most closely associated with Beck – went for around $543,000 (£441,000), having had a pre-sale estimate of approximately $62,000.
The last guitar sold was a Jeff Beck signature Strat, covered with autographs signed by the performers who participated in a tribute concert to the musician at the Royal Albert Hall in 2023, including Eric Clapton, Susan Tedeschi, and Kirk Hammett.
This particular sale had a charitable element to it, as its total hammer price, along with that of the last three lots, was donated to Folly Wildlife Rescue, a charity Jeff Beck proudly supported during his lifetime.
Given the scale of the prices achieved in this auction, it’s perhaps not surprising that no less than three of these lots will be shoe-ins on the list of the most expensive guitars ever sold, with the ‘Oxblood’ a surefire addition – though none will break the top 10.
These astounding figures follow the recent trend we’ve seen with other big-name guitar auctions, where many have gone far beyond their estimates.
The star power, the guitar's provenance and its inherent vintage value, as well as the accumulated wealth that comes as successive generations of rock fans reach their ‘golden years’, has proved a potent combination, driving up prices.
Mark Knopfler's guitar collection sold for a total of $11,227,003 last year, which surprised auctioneers at the time, but it seems the trend won’t be tailing-off anytime soon.
To view the full auction results, visit Christie's.
