Call it a sign o’ the times.
Legendary recording artist Prince’s first wife and manager are auctioning off hundreds of thousands of dollar in memorabilia, including the guitar he used on his very first demos starting in the 1970s. The bidding on that piece starts at $60,000.
The auction is another in a recent spate pricey music memorabilia auctions, like the $2 million sale of Bob Dylan’s hand-written lyrics for the song Like a Rolling Stone in 2014, or the $137,000 sale of the sweater Kurt Cobain wore during Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance last year.
Also for sale are several of Prince’s famously ostentatious outfits, including the electric blue ensemble he wore on the cover of his 1999 album, “Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.”
One of the more expensive pieces for sale? “The diamond engagement ring with which Prince proposed to his wife Mayte Garcia, accompanied by 5 handwritten heart notes, which Prince used to lead her on a romantic journey to the ring,” according to Nate D. Sanders Fine Autographs and Memorabilia, who are managing the auction.