$21.5M single-owner sale · 126 lots · 100% sold · The cleanest dataset for isolating performative provenance as a pricing variable.
Sale Overview
The Performative Multiplier
The instruments that built the Pink Floyd sound commanded extreme prices
Three guitars directly associated with The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall accounted for $6.9M. These instruments carried modest estimates totalling $260K. The market paid 26.5x for the story.
The Jedson lap steel is the purest proof of performative provenance
A $50 department-store guitar estimated at $2,000 sold for $300,000. It has no collector value, no vintage merit, no brand cachet. Its only attribute: Gilmour played it on Shine On You Crazy Diamond. That single association created a 150x return over estimate.
58 of 126 lots cleared $100,000
Nearly half the collection exceeded six figures. This is not a sale propped up by three trophy lots. Demand was distributed across the full range, from vintage Fenders to workhorse acoustics, suggesting broad collector conviction in the Gilmour provenance premium.
ClientEarth donation added a charitable provenance layer
All proceeds went to ClientEarth. Charitable intent can amplify bidding behaviour, but the scale of outperformance here goes far beyond goodwill. A $2K estimate becoming $300K is not explained by philanthropy alone.
Distribution Analysis
How the $21.5M spread across 126 lots. The top 3 instruments accounted for $6.9M (32%). 58 lots cleared $100K. The long tail still outperformed estimates by 5-25x.
Price Distribution (Tracked Lots)
Category Breakdown
Estimate vs. Realised
Realised price (Y) vs. estimate multiplier (X). Bubble size reflects absolute price. The further right a lot sits, the more the market paid beyond what comps predicted.
Lot-Level Performance
All 40 Tracked Lots — Ranked by Realised Price
This index tracks 40 of the 126 lots with verified Christie's estimate data, representing $14.6M and 68% of the $21.5M sale total. Contribution % is calculated against the tracked index total.
| Lot | Category | Estimate | Realised | Multiplier | Contribution | Tier |
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Estimate Smashers
Christie's estimates for the Gilmour sale were conservative by design. The collection comprised guitars, not paintings. Traditional auction comps for vintage Fenders and Martins sit in the low thousands to low six figures. What happened at auction tells us that the market is not pricing guitars. It is pricing the moments those guitars created. The lots below beat their estimates by the widest margins. Each one has a direct, documented link to a specific Pink Floyd recording or performance.
| # | Lot | Low Estimate | Realised | Multiplier | Delta |
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