“The jacket is a hit,” says Herbert Hauke, Munich’s walking rock dictionary. Freddie Mercury wore the beautiful black silk and velvet piece with silver epaulettes in the video for the song “Living on my own”. And the, queen-Fans Know, was filmed at Mercury’s legendary 39th birthday party at the Old Mrs. Henderson nightclub in 1986. In Munich, where the British rock star lived from 1979 to 1985.
More than 1,500 of Freddie Mercury’s personal items, including this jacket, will be auctioned in September.
(Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)
Of course, Hauke, who once ran the Rock Museum in the Olympic Tower and organized a fine Queen exhibition in the Pasing factory in 2022, would like the jacket. He would also be keen on the manuscript of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” which Mercury allegedly wrote at the Munich Hilton Hotel. The possibility of acquisition would now definitely exist, because the London auction house Sotheby’s will be auctioning off the jacket and 1,500 personal pieces of jewellery, works of art, photos, a mustache comb and costumes such as the royal outfit including a crown (from the last Queen tour) from Mercury’s estate in September. Previously, the pieces in the Internet and can be viewed at a traveling exhibition (e.g. in London, New York and Tokyo).
This crown from the last tour is included.
(Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)
But these sneakers…
(Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)
…manuscripts of song lyrics such as “Don’t Stop Me Now'”, “Somebody to Love” and “We Are The Champions”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/.”
(Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)
Most valuable part: The 15-page manuscript of “Bohemian Rhapsody” for an estimated 900,000 to 1.4 million euros. In contrast, the Munich jacket would be a bargain at 12,000 to 20,000 euros. Not for Hauke: “Price is in dimensions that are not from this world.” He himself bought his souvenirs – such as spandex pants and two manuscripts of never published songs – “for an apple and an egg” when Mercury wasn’t as popular as it is today. There is already a winner in the auction campaign, including one from Munich: a picture taken by the photographer Didi Zill of Mercury in his house in Kensington will be included in the catalogue, maybe even on the cover.