The guitar Nirvana’s frontman Kurt Cobain played in his last public performance has been presented to London’s Royal College of Music, Artnet reported.
The guitar in question is a rare 1959 Martin D-18E, specifically modified for left-handed Cobain. The artist played his songs with this instrument in 1993 during an episode of the MTV Unplugged series. The concert, recorded in one take, became one of Cobain’s most famous and moving performances.
Following Cobain’s death in 1994, the guitar remained in the personal possession of his family. The frontman’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, kept the instrument in a vault in Seattle. Later, in 2018, the instrument passed to her ex-husband, Isaiah Silva, following their divorce.
In 2020, the guitar was sold at Julien’s Auctions for $6 million to Peter Freedman, the founder of Røde, an Australian audio technology company. Since then, the instrument has been on display at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and at the Royal College of Music in London, attracting around 15,000 visitors. From now on, the instrument’s official location is set at the college.
Cobain’s guitar will enhance the college’s rare collection, which already features a 16th-century harpsichord by Alessandro Trasuntino and the earliest dated guitar produced in the 1580s in Lisbon.
Separately, another of Cobain’s guitars — the left-handed 1969 Fender Competition Mustang featured in the «Smells Like Teen Spirit» music video — will be offered at the Christie’s New York auction in 2026.
