A guitar Jimi Hendrix burnt on stage will be sold by rock and film memorabilia auctioneers The Fame Bureau at the Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch, London, on September 4.

The 1965 Fender Stratocaster, which he doused in lighter fluid and then set on fire at the Astoria in London in March 1967, is anticipated to fetch around £500,000 ($1million).

At the end of his show Hendrix set fire to the base of his Fender Stratocaster – as the astonished audience looked on and petrified venue staff ushered the performer off. Hendrix injured himself and had to be taken to hospital with minor burns on his hands.

Hendrix did his burning guitar stunt twice during his career. The one up for auction is the only one still in existence.

The drum skin used on the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album has sold for £541,250 ($1.07m) at auction in London, almost four times the estimate.

The skin was a hand-painted item that was only ever used for the cover of the classic 1967 album.
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was not only one of The Beatles biggest albums, it was also one of the most important albums ever from the rock era.

The Beatles began recording the album on December 6, 1966 and spent the next 129 days in recording. That was an amazing time for a recording in the 60s.

The Sgt Pepper skin was just one of many Beatles items that sold at the auction : a pair of tinted prescription sunglasses belonging to Lennon, which the singer wore for the cover of the single Mind Games, raised £39,650 ($78,400) and the hand-written lyrics to “Give Peace A Chance” sold for £421,250 ($833,000). Source: BBC

Despite the weak housing market, Donald Trump has recently sold the Palm Beach estate he bought for $US41.35 million in 2004 for $100 million (he came down from $125 million).

The 80,000-square-foot property at 515 N. County Road sits on 6 acres and has 475 feet of unobstructed oceanfront, making the price per linear foot $210,526.

However, the new owner, billionaire and Russian fertilizer tycoon Dmitry Rybolovlev, is actually considering tearing down the mansion and possibly subdividing the property, according to sources.

Bonhams celebrated its best ever motorcycle sale at Stafford in April, achieving several world record prices in a storming sale that realised £2,000,000 ($4,000,000). This is the highest ever sale total for any UK motorcycle sale, emphatically confirming Bonhams position as clear market leader for collectors motorcycles.

This was the first of four dedicated motorcycle sales at Bonhams this year, and launched the 2008 calendar in commanding fashion, with 88% of all lots selling and the top three bikes each realising over £100,000 ($200,0000 – all three selling to UK private collectors.

The 1934 Brough Superior 996cc SS100 made top price of £166,500 ($330,000) – a world record price for the model and the highest price ever paid for a British motorcycle at auction.

The Brough Superior, a rare example of this legendary pre-war superbike, represented the JAP-engined SS100 in its ultimate form. Incorporating ‘two of everything’ (carburettors, magnetos, oil pumps), it was one of only six made to this specification in 1934 and retained its original frame, engine and registration mark. The machine formed part of the Murray Motorcycle Museum Collection in the Isle of Man from 1973 to 2005.

The next auction will be held on monday : Bonhams will auction off an astounding collection of vintage motorcycles worth $2 million at the Royal Air Force Museum in London.
The sale represents the largest single-owner collection of motorbikes ever to come to auction; all 300 machines are from the Professor Fritz Ehn Motorcycle Museum in Austria. (source : press release)

An unused life jacket from the doomed transatlantic cruise ship “Titanic,” which struck an iceberg in 1912 and sank, fetched 68,500 dollars at auction at Christie’s in New York late Wednesday.

The cork-filled life preserver – still largely intact, but stained and torn in parts – was thought to have been found by farmer John James Dunbar on the Halifax shoreline after the passenger ship sank off Newfoundland in April, 1912.

The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg, causing some 1,500 people to die.

Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s are holding significant Impressionist and Modern evening sales in London this week. “We’re seeing a very strong market for top quality Impressionist paintings this summer,” the vice chairman of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide at Sotheby’s, Helena Newman, said.

On Wednesday, Sotheby’s will put up Monet’s “La Plage à Trouville” expected to fetch between $14 million and $20 million. “It’s an iconic work,” Ms. Newman said. “Monet was exploring the effects of the wind and the light on the water, all quintessentially Impressionist effects.”

Monet completed his painting in 1870 while vacationing with his wife and son at the tony French resort town of Trouville.