Freddie Mercury's sister spent £3million buying back brother's possessions
Freddie Mercury's sister secretly spent around £3 million (€3.5 million) to buy items from an auction of the Queen singer's possessions.
Kashmira Bulsara reportedly spent the huge sum at the 2023 Sotheby's auction of 1,400 possessions owned by the late Mercury. The auction was the
biggest single
sale of the singer's possessions. It was organised by Mary Austin, the close friend and former fiancé of Mercury, who inherited a vast amount of his estate following his death in 1991.
'For many years I had the joy and privilege of living surrounded by all the wonderful things Freddie sought out and loved so much,' said Austin at the time. 'But the years have passed and the time has come for me to make the difficult decision to close this very special chapter of my life.'
Freddie Mercury's Yamaha Grand Piano, estimated at 2-3 million pounds, on display at Sotheby's auction rooms in London, Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023
AP Photo
Austin donated part of the proceeds to the
Elton John Aids Foundation
and to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, an Aids charity set up by the remaining Queen members.
However, Bulsara was upset to see so many of her brother's possessions bid on by strangers. She reportedly went to view the lots ahead of the auction and sent her personal assistant to bid on items.
Overall, the auction closed with sales of £40 million (€46.7 million). Of these sales, Bulsara is believed to have bought Mercury's Wurlitzer Model 850 jukebox, a waistcoat with portraits of his cats, a military-style jacket designed for Mercury's 39th birthday, and a set of draft lyrics to Queen's 1974 classic 'Killer Queen'.
Adding up the reported sales of these items, Bulsara may have spent up to £3 million on buying her brother's possessions.
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