The guitars of the 'rediscovered' Oasis go up for auction at Sotheby's

On the morning of 28 August, the Ticketmaster website, where tickets for concerts and events are bought, went haywire: millions logged on at the same time to see. A few days earlier, anticipated by a message on Twitter the previous day, Oasis, the cult pop-rock band of the90s and disbanded 15 years ago, had announced a sensational comeback. Tens of millions of fans of theGallagher brothers, those of now-historic songs like Wonderwall and Supersonic, which have entered popular culture, wanted to try and buy tickets for the 2025 concerts, even though the announcement had informed them that they would only go on sale today. But such was the eagerness that they did not wait.

While many searched the Ticketmaster website, and tried again on 13 September, with a similar script, i.e. tickets that could not be found, even for the additional dates, other fans thought it best to take home a piece of their favourite band, instead of just aiming for a 'banal' concert. In the same week as the historic announcement for the music world, the auction house Sotheby's in London auctioned off two guitars byNoel Gallagher, the composer of Oasis. Sotheby's announcement about Oasis, the music news of the year - music is now a multi-million dollar industry (as the case of Taylor Swift proves) -, was pure coincidence: the auction had been planned months ago and only by a lucky coincidence did it fall in the week of the announcement of the rediscovered (who knows for how much longer) brothers Liam and Noel.

For the guitar of the most famous British music group since Beatles and Rolling Stones, the auction house was expecting between $60-80,000, but the final price was much higher: £132,000. The sale took place remotely, via the internet, and remained open for ten days: BritPop fans could submit their bids until 12 September. In addition to the Epiphone guitar, another Oasis piece went up for auction: the valuation is lower, between $20-30,000, and it finally went for $48,000, slightly above expectations, but for music lovers it is a treat. It is a Gibson electric guitar, model Flying V, which was owned by Johnny Marr, the former guitarist of the Smiths, another legendary British band, before being played by Noel to compose the album Definitely Maybe, considered to be the band's masterpiece and whose 30th anniversary is being celebrated this week.

Actually, the prized piece of the whole auction was another, and far more valuable: it was a guitar used by Prince, music superstar of the 1980s and 1990s. The funk icon, moreover known for his 'custom-made' guitars, including the world-famous Symbol, a one-of-a-kind piece, died ten years ago. And, cynically in the art world, the pieces of a deceased artist are worth more. The musical instrument Sotheby's is offering is a VOX. It was used in the last years of the celebrity's life, when he was accompanied by an all-female group called 3RDDEYEGIRL: the piece comes from the private collection of one of the group's musicians, and was photographed at various concerts. London beaters expect a valuation of around 300,000 dollars. That is a very high figure for a guitar, but it would not be a record either: last June, another electric guitar, also belonging to Prince, went for 900 thousand dollars.

In addition to guitars worthy of a 'Prince' in the same session, other interesting memorabilia is also going up for auction: a piano that was used for decades at Abbey Road Studios in London, the Beatles' famous recording studios. That same piano, complete with cigarette butts extinguished over time by the various artists who used it, was played by Sir Paul McCartney and, more recently, also by the late Amy Winehouse, the British band Radiohead and superstar Lady Gaga. Value: $200,000 and was later fetched at £192,000. There are also items from the John Lennon archive, dating back to the New York days of his protest in bed with Yoko Ono.