You might expect Freddie Mercury's Rolls-Royce to bring dazzling results when it appears at auction, yet a UK auction house has consigned the Queen singer's car with a surprisingly low estimate.
 Mercury never actually held a licence, which accounts for the modest estimate |
The 1974 Silver Shadow will be sold with a £9,000-11,000 ($14,600 -17,844) valuation on January 12. The low price tag can be attributed to the fact that Mercury never held a licence and therefore, would only have been chauffeured in the car.
It has been consigned to auction by his sister, who has cared for the vehicle since the star died in 1991. This is not the first time she has attempted to sell it; it achieved £8,400 on eBay in 2005, failing to meet its reserve.
The original sale saw the Rolls-Royce offered with a box of tissues that Mercury kept in the car, and which his sister reportedly could not bring herself to remove. The tissues are not mentioned in the current auction description.
The car was originally purchased by Mercury's Goose Productions Ltd and a letter in the car's file - from band manager Jim Beach - confirms that it was bought specifically for the singer's use and was driven until his death. It was last seen at the premier of the We Will Rock You musical and has covered minimal mileage since.
A fantastic piece of music history, it will be sold complete with a thick file containing bills and receipts, as well as old and current MOTs.
Rolls-Royce has long been the marque of choice for British celebrities, with John Lennon's psychedelic Phantom V selling for $2.3m in 1985 to become the world's most expensive piece of music memorabilia. Princess Diana's Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith II sold at auction in November last year, bringing $122,322 in a charity sale.
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