The piano Freddie Mercury used to compose ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ sells for £1.7million
nme.comFreddie Mercury’s piano – which he used to compose Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – has sold for £1.7million at auction.Held at Sotheby’s on Wednesday (September 6), the auction saw 1,500 pieces of the late singer’s possessions go under the hammer, including handwritten lyrics for some of Queen’s most famous songs, jewellery worn by Mercury, and his collection of artwork.The item that fetched the most at the auction house earlier this week was the piano that Mercury used to compose the hit song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – a 1973 Yamaha Grand, which sold for £1.7million.
This surpassed the amount that John Lennon’s piano, which he used to write ‘Imagine’, reached in a previous auction. According to the Wall Street Journal, the latter sold for £1.68million in 2000, and was purchased by another musician, George Michael.Elsewhere at the Sotheby’s auction, other items from Mercury’s self-described collection of “exquisite clutter” included 15 pages of lyrics, including those for the aforementioned 1975 hit.
These were written on stationary for a defunct airline and revealed that the song was nearly titled ‘Mongolian Rhapsody’, with the frontman crossing out the first word and replacing it with “Bohemian”.Other ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ related items sold at the auction included the silver snake bangle Mercury wore in the music video and the gold Cartier brooch that Queen’s manager gifted each member after the song topped the charts.
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