The black Fender Stratocaster that Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour played on Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall set a record for the most expensive guitar sold at auction Thursday when Christie's brought the hammer down at $14.550-million. It was part of the three-day sale of memorabilia that belonged to the late Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts NFL franchise. He paid $5.245 million for the "Black Strat" in 2019, which at the time set a record.

Estimated to come in between $2 and $4 million, the sale doubled the previous record of $6 million paid in 2020 for the 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic guitar that Kurt Cobain played during Nirvana's performance on MTV Unplugged in 1993.

And another Cobain guitar, the Fender Mustang used in the video for Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," also broke the record, selling for $6.907 million.

Also besting the Cobain sale Thursday was Jerry Garcia's “Tiger,” which went for $10 million. Garcia played it from 1979 to 1989, as well as during his final performance with The Grateful Dead at Chicago’s Soldier Field on July 9th, 1995. It was estimated to sell for $1 to $2 million.

Other big sellers on the first day, which took in over $84-million, were:

Ringo Starr's Ludwig drum kit that he played from May 1963 to February 1964 -- $2.393 million
Ringo's Beatles logo drum head used on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 -- $2.881 million
John Lennon's 1964/'65 stage-played Rickenbacker guitar -- $1.270 million
John Lennon's Broadwood upright piano that he composed "A Day in the Life" on -- $3.247 million, which was the most ever paid for a piece of Beatles memorsbilia
George Harrison's Gibson SG Standard that he used from 1966 to 1968 -- $2.271 million
Paul McCartney's handwritten lyrics for "Hey Jude" -- $1.016 million
Eric Clapton, Jackie Lomax and Todd Rundgren Gibson SG Standard, known as "The Fool" -- $3.003 million, which is a record for a Gibson guitar
Eric Clapton's Martin 000-42 acoustic guitar used on MTV Unplugged -- $4.101 million, the most ever paid for a Clapton guitar
David Gilmour's Martin D-35 acoustic guitar used to record "Wish You Were Here" -- $2.393 million
Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics for "The Times They Are A-Changin'" -- $2.515 million, the highest price ever paid for lyrics

Bret Saunders