After ten years after being on Ebay, the 1972 Dodge van that belonged to the Melvins and decorated by Kurt Cobain, who was from Roadie to the band, is auctioned. The vehicle, renamed Melvan, is included in Music Icons, auction organized by Julien's for 30 and 31 May at the Hard Rock Café in New York. It is sold in pieces, from the carriage panels to the steering wheel.
The auction house released a video that documents Melvan's last trip that last month made a stop in front of Seattle's ASY Street Records, for the record store Day. At the wheel he sits down Matt Vaughan, owner of the shop (who engraved Cobain to the party for the launch of Snowmind): “There is still stench of beer.”
According to Julien's estimates, pieces of the bodywork decorated with writings such as “Mean Machine” and “No Talent” could be sold to a figure between 1000 and 2000 dollars. The steering wheel used by Cobain is estimated between 2000 and 4000 dollars. An Melvins sticker on the dashboard could reach $ 600-800. The highlight is the design of the four Kiss members created by Cobain for which a figure is expected between $ 20,000 and 40 thousand.
“The ideal,” says Giles Moon, curator of the auction, “it would be that the new owner made these objects accessible to fans, perhaps in a museum. But I believe that in any case they will be bought by someone who really appreciates them ».
In addition to Melvan, Julien's auction will put guitars that belonged to Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton and others, clothes worn by Elton John, Chappell Roan and Bob Dylan, beyond Julian Julian Lennon collection of Cimeli related to his father John. The objects will be exhibited in London and New York in May.
Melvan had ended up on Ebay in 2012. The seller was Ben Berg, who had received him as a gift roughly in 1992 from Matt Lukin's mother, a former Melvins bassist. «I didn't even know that Kurt was somehow tied to the van until I got hold of it. They told me he had designed the Kiss with stolen markers and that he had guided him to bring the Melvins to the concerts in the area ». At the time the required price was $ 150,000, but in the end the van had been sold for $ 24,701.
From Rolling Stone Us.
