Dire Straits‘ lead guitarist Mark Knopfler is placing his personal guitar collection up for auction.
Knopfler is parting with more than 120 guitars from his collection, including the Les Paul on which he recorded and played “Money For Nothing” with Dire Straits at Live Aid.
“I think every guitar has a song in it,” says Knopfler. “It’s a superstitious belief. Whenever I worked with new people, I’d give them a guitar, so as to leave them with something to think about: here you are, maybe there’s a song in this for you.”
“I spent lots of time with these guitars, but they need good homes to go to,” he adds. “Why hang on to them when there are people who would love to have them, and would play them every day?”
On January 31, 2024, the guitars and amps will be offered at Christie’s. A touring exhibition from December 9 to 13 in New York will be followed by a pre-sale view at Christie’s London headquarters in January 2024.
“The Mark Knopfler Guitar Collection” includes hollow and solid-bodies; basses and 12-strings; dreadnoughts and parlour guitars; golden-age factory models and luthier-made one-offs. But the main division in the collection is between acoustics and electrics.
“I never thought that my signature would be on anything, never mind Fenders, Gibsons and Martins – they’re the Father, Son and Holy Ghost of guitars,” says Knopfler.
(Photo: Derek Hudson)
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