Kurt Cobain’s smashed guitar sold for $595K

A guitar smashed on stage by Nirvana’s late front man, Kurt Cobain, has been sold for $595,000, Julien’s Auctions announced on Saturday.

The smashed black Fender Stratocaster was put back together but cannot be played, and was signed by all three members of the American rock band.

The auction house was expecting the guitar to be sold for $60,000 at an event with a live audience in the Hard Rock Café in New York, the guitar’s price went up to $595,000.

“Kurt Cobain, when he was on stage, when he played, he was a machine. The man was angry, and you could feel that on stage. And you would feel that by the way he would treat his instruments,” said Kody Frederick of Julien’s Auctions.

The three-day auction, which will be concluded on Sunday, also includes memorabilia from Eddie Van Halen, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Bill Wyman and Janet Jackson.

Cobain wrote most of Nirvana’s hits, including Come As You Are, Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium. Cobain has struggled with substance abuse and depression, and died of suicide in 1994 at the age of 27.