Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Freddie Mercury: Queen star's friend Mary Austin to auction his personal treasures

Freddie Mercury: Queen star's friend Mary Austin to auction his personal treasures

One of Freddie Mercury's oldest friends is to auction an intimate collection of 1,500 items belonging to the late Queen star, including some of his handwritten lyrics and riotous stage costumes.

The singer built up the collection over 30 years and kept everything at his home in west London.

When he died in 1991, he left both the house and its contents to Mary Austin.

"The collection takes you deeper within the individual and the man I knew," Austin said.

Mary Austin with Freddie Mercury in 1986


Austin is sitting in the huge galleried drawing room, with a portrait by the French painter Tissot on the wall, which was the last work of art Mercury bought, a month before he died.

It was hung so Mercury could see it from the sofa. It is estimated to fetch between £400,000-600,000.

"You see the spectrum of his taste," said Austin, speaking exclusively to the BBC.

"It's a very intelligent, sophisticated collection."

The last work of art Mercury bought was this portrait by James Jacques Tissot (estimate £400,000-600,000)


A highlight of the sale will be Freddie Mercury's handwritten working lyrics to one of Queen's greatest anthems, We Are The Champions, including harmonies and chords, written across nine pages. They are expected to sell for £200,000-300,000.

The unseen working lyrics to Killer Queen, written on a single sheet of paper in black Biro in 1974, are expected to fetch £50,000-70,000.

Austin said the lyrics were particularly difficult to part with, because they show "for me, the most beautiful side" of the man she was devoted to.

"You're looking at the process of the artist, of work in progress," she added. "The crossings out, the rethinking, the reformatting."

Nineteen-year-old Austin had been out on a date with Queen's guitarist Brian May when she first met Mercury in 1970.

Queen in 1973, left to right: John Deacon, Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and Brian May


They moved in together and remained close even after he told her he was gay. She cared for him as he became weaker after contracting an Aids-related illness.

Mercury once said of Austin: "I don't have that many people to turn to. And the only one, if we're talking about it, is Mary."

Naturally shy and self-effacing, Austin has rarely spoken in public since Mercury died.

But he is still a huge part of her life. "I miss the fun, the humour, his warmth, his energy," she reflects.

Mercury lived in Garden Lodge in Kensington


The house, Garden Lodge, in Kensington, has remained almost entirely as Mercury left it for three decades, complete with the antique furniture, artworks and glass he collected and the sumptuous fabrics he loved.

There are prints by Matisse and Chagall hung on the iridescent buttercup-yellow gloss-painted walls of the dining room and a portrait by Picasso which was displayed above the breakfast table in the kitchen.

In Mercury's kitchen hung Pablo Picasso's portrait of his wife (estimate £50,000 - 70,000)


"I like to be surrounded by splendid things," he once said. "I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter."

But now Austin has decided to sell the collection, "because I need to put my affairs in order," she explains.

Austin, 72, adds: "The time has come for me to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life."

And beyond a few "personal gifts" and photographs of the pair together, Mary Austin is selling everything.

"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."

Freddie Mercury's crown, a replica of St Edward's Crown worn by King Charles at the Coronation (estimate £60,000-80,000)


So Mercury's stage costumes will be sold, including sequinned catsuits, glittered shoes and the fake fur, red velvet and rhinestones crown and matching cloak he wore during his last tour with Queen in the 1980s.

He kept them in a mirrored-lined dressing room.

It is thought Freddie Mercury wrote and recorded Crazy Little Thing Called Love on this 1975 Martin D-35 Acoustic guitar (estimate £30,000-50,000)


There are personal items in the sale too. The telephone he kept beside his bed, a specially commissioned marble bar and matching bar stools, monogrammed cocktail napkins embroidered with a green F and a small silver moustache comb.

There is also his favourite waistcoat, worn in his final video These are the Days of Our Lives, in 1991.

The silk panels of red, green and purple are each hand-painted with one of Mercury's cats, Delilah, Goliath, Oscar, Lily, Romeo and Miko.

Freddie Mercury's favourite waistcoat (estimated to fetch £5,000-7,000)


All 1,500 items will go on display at Sotheby's in London in the summer in a sequence of specially designed galleries, devoted to a different aspect of Mercury's life, before they are sold in September.

The auction is expected to fetch in excess of £6m and some of the proceeds will be donated to charity.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×