Rock icon’s guitar could fetch R13m
ONE of Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia’s most famous guitars is going back on auction, where it could fetch more than $1-million (R13.4-million) to back a civil rights group.
Known as Wolf, the electric guitar was custom-made by luthier Doug Irwin.
Garcia debuted it at a 1973 concert in New York before the instrument became ever-present during the Dead’s perpetual touring.
Dan Pritzker, a music-loving philanthropist who is an heir to the wealthy Chicago family known for the Hyatt hotel chain, bought Wolf for $789 500 (R10.5million) from the auction house Guernsey’s in 2002.
Pritzker, who occasionally lent the guitar to musicians, decided to put it back on auction, announcing that all proceeds would go to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which wages legal battles against white supremacists and other hate groups.
“He called me three months ago to say he was concerned about the divisive things that are going on in the country and wanted to do something meaningful,” Guernsey’s president Arlan Ettinger said.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre has voiced alarm at a spike in hate crimes, especially targeting immigrants and Muslims, since President Donald Trump launched his campaign in 2015.
“As extremism moves from the fringe to the mainstream, we have a lot of work to do,” the centre’s president, Richard Cohen, said.
“This remarkable act of generosity only strengthens our resolve.”
In 2015, the Gibson on which John Lennon played Love Me Do and other early Beatles songs sold for $2.4-million (R32.1-million), another record for a historic guitar.