Musician Sting’s Steinway piano sells for a staggering £116,500 against estimate of just £30,000 to £50,000
On Wednesday morning, at the Christie’s auction of the contents of the former Queen Anne’s Gate, Westminster home of the musician Sting and his socialite wife Trudie Styler, a Steinway & Sons B-137185 grand piano sold for £116,500 ($162,634, €147,722) against an estimate of just £30,000 to £50,000 ($41,648 to $69,554, €37,974 to €63,337).
Owned by Sting since 2002, the piano was described as having “occupied pride of place” in the artist’s music room and was used by him when he worked on his Songs from the Labyrinth, If on a Winter’s Night and The Last Ship albums. It had been made in Hamburg in 1909 and was restored and ebonised in 2002.
Amongst other lots on offer in the sale were artworks by Matisse and Picasso. Sting and his wife asked Christie’s to conduct the auction in preparation for their move from Queen Anne’s Gate – which they bought for £5.7 million (the equivalent of £8.1 million $11.3 million or €10.3 million today) in 2003 and sold for £19 million ($26.4 million, €24.1 million) in 2015 – to a new residence in the forthcoming Battersea Power Station redevelopment.
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