Fabergé featured at ‘Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own’ Sotheby’s auction

This summer, Sotheby’s will present Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore the private realm of a global icon.

Alongside his legendary public persona, Freddie Mercury was a deeply educated collector with a connoisseur’s eye, honed over years of careful research and exploration of the artists and movements that sparked his intellectual and aesthetic curiosity.

This rich legacy will now be shared for the very first time through a series of auctions at Sotheby’s London, preceded by a public exhibition unlike anything that has been seen before. The auction includes a classic Fabergé gem-set, nephrite and enamel desk clock, circa 1908-17, which had pride of place in Mercury’s bedroom. An exquisite piece, this was bought at Sotheby’s in Switzerland, and Mercury kept it with the marked-up auction catalogue close by. This piece has an estimate of £30,000 - £50,000.

The month-long exhibition at Sotheby’s this summer will see all 1,500 or so items from Garden Lodge displayed in a sequence of specially designed immersive galleries, each one devoted to a different aspect of Mercury’s rich and varied life. The exhibition will open on 4th August, and close on what would have been his 77th birthday, 5th September. Prior
to their exhibition in London, highlights from the collection will tour to New York, London, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong in June.

The six dedicated auctions which follow will be led by a live Evening Sale on 6th September, in which a representative cross-section of the most significant items in the collection will be offered. On 7th and 8th September, two further live auctions will follow: the first dedicated to Mercury “On Stage”, the second dedicated to his life “At Home”, and to the objects he loved and lived with at Garden Lodge.