Mary Austin makes a record sum auctioning off Freddie Mercury personal effects

By editorial board on September 19, 2023

Mary Austin has made millions after controversially selling off Freddie Mercury's personal possessions at auction, an action that Queen guitarist Sir Brian May confessed he found "too sad", adding, "I can't look".

After a month of allowing the public to view the contents of Garden Lodge and Freddie Mercury’s personal possessions at Sotheby’s in London, the 1406 lots went up for auction. Following more than 41,800 bids, Freddie Mercury's personal effects made £40 million in total.

A baby grand piano that once belonged to Freddie Mercury sold for over £1.74 million ($2.2 million) at a Sotheby’s auction Wednesday.

Bought in 1975 and imported to England from Japan, the Yamaha G2 was used by the Queen frontman to compose his seminal track “Bohemian Rhapsody” that same year.

The auction opened with the sale of a green door outside Mercury's Kensington home covered in hand-painted notes from fans who made a pilgrimage to the house. It was sold for £412,750 pounds in a bidding war that lasted nearly 20 minutes.

 

With passing years, the door became an icon amongst monuments of popular culture in London, the auction house added.

A Victorian-style silver snake bangle Mercury wore with an ivory satin catsuit in a video for the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" set a record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of jewelry owned by a singer.

The bracelet was sold for £698,500 — at least 100 times its estimated low price, breaking the record of John Lennon’s leather and bead talisman, which was sold for £295,000 in 2008.

The eclectic collection of objects were reportedly amassed by Mercury after Queen's glam-rock produced an avalanche of hits that allowed the singer to achieve his dream of living a Victorian life "surrounded by exquisite clutter".

 

piano

 

 

The vast collection of the singer's personal belongings, which had been left to Mercury's close friend Mary Austin, had remained undisturbed in his west London mansion for 30 years since his death in 1991.

Austin, 72, said in a BBC interview in April that she has decided to sell almost all the items to “close this very special chapter in my life” and “put my affairs in order.   I need to put my affairs in order. The time has come for me to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life."

“I decided that it wouldn't be appropriate for me to keep things back. If I was going to sell, I had to be brave and sell the lot.”

Among the hundreds of Mercury's personal treasures were his dazzling sequin catsuits, leather jackets and the lavish red cape and crown he wore on his last Queen performance in 1986, as well as previously unseen working drafts of hits “Don't Stop Me Now,” “We Are the Champions” and ”Somebody to Love."

The handwritten draft of “Bohemian Rhapsody” — which shows that Mercury experimented with naming the song “Mongolian Rhapsody” before crossing it out — is expected to fetch 800,000 to 1.2 million pounds ($1 million to $1.5 million), the Independent reports.Freddie Mercury and Mary Austin

Mary tried to persuade Freddie to leave the house in trust as a memorial to his life and work for fans to visit, but he was determined to make her his heir. She recalled his powerful words her: "If things had been different, you would have been my wife and this would have been yours anyway."
Freddie Mercuy's 'love of my life' Mary Austin spoke emotionally of the final days by his side, caring for the Queen star, sitting with him and brushing his hair: "It was like a marriage, in sickness and in health." - Freddie died the 24th November 1991.

He (Freddie) said: "You can be loved by so many thousands of people but still be the loneliest person. And the frustration of that makes it worse because it's hard for people to understand that you can be lonely.

Mary remained an integral part of his life. She had relationships and two sons while Freddie began to explore his sexuality and dated a succession of men before finally settling down with Jim.

Mary was also employed to manage all of Freddie's accounts and manage his household.

Freddie appeared to have everything. He was the ultimate showman and rarely revealed much about his inner thoughts. However, in one candid interview, he said: "I might have all the problems in the world but I have Mary and that gets me through...

Mary dated the Queen star for six years but remained by his side for the next 15 years as his devoted friend. He left her his West Kensington mansion and the bulk of his fortune. Although he moved on and dated men, ending up with Jim Hutton, Freddie and Mary's bond was unbreakable and she was one of the very few people he trusted to care for him in his final days.

Mary would come every day, along with Freddie's close friend Dave Clarke, who was the person at his side when he died.

Mary spoke movingly of her last moments with the man who had always referred to her as his "common-law wife."

Mary said: "During those times I did really feel such love for him. They were the moments I remembered every time I looked at his bed. I would sit every day next to the bed for six hours, whether he was awake or not.

"He would suddenly wake up and smile and say, 'Oh, it's you, old faithful.'"

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