Freddie Mercury's Personal Items Up For Auction

Sotheby’s, a dynamic marketplace for art and luxury, is kickstarting a new auction and this time, it’s a collection that celebrates Freddie Mercury.

The iconic Queen vocalist’s rare, “splendid” items will go up for sale on 6 September in London as part of the A World of His Own exhibit. You can register your interest in bidding here.

As Blabbermouth reports, about 1,500 items that belonged to Mercury will be available for auction. The items from his Garden Lodge home in Kensington will be displayed in exhibitions in London, New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, with an estimated value of £6 million ($11.3 million).

Sotheby’s provided a press release with Mary Austin, loved by Mercury, revealing that she’s looked after his items for over 30 years but feels it’s time to let go.

"For many years now, I have had the joy and privilege of living surrounded by all the wonderful things that Freddie sought out and so loved,” Austin commented in a statement. “But the years have passed, and the time has come for me to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life.”

Austin continued, "Freddie was an incredible and intelligent collector who showed us that there is beauty and fun and conversation to be found in everything.

“I hope [the upcoming events] will be an opportunity to share all the many facets of Freddie, both public and private, and for the world to understand more about, and celebrate, his unique and beautiful spirit."

Some of the most exciting items up for auction include Mercury’s handwritten lyric sheets (some of them unfinished) for hits such as We Are The Champions and Killer Queen. His waistcoats, guitars, and moustache combs used in music videos for Crazy Little Thing Called Love and These Are The Days Of Our Lives are also for sale.

A few months ago, Queen unveiled a “lost” song from the Miracle sessions featuring Mercury’s vocals, Face It Alone.

"It was kind of hiding in plain sight," guitarist Brian May shared with Radio 2's Zoe Ball in October. "We looked at it many times and thought, oh no, we can't really rescue that. But in fact, we went in there again, and our wonderful engineering team went, okay, we can do this and this. It's like kind of stitching bits together. But it's beautiful. It's touching."

"We'd kind of forgotten about this track," drummer Roger Taylor admitted, "but there it was, this little gem. It's wonderful, a real discovery. It's a very passionate piece". Check it out below.