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And Finally Artist News
Owner of Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged cardigan says he’s selling it because it’s too powerful
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 23 October 2019
The owner of Kurt Cobain’s cardigan as worn during Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance has revealed that he is selling it at auction later this week because having it in his house got a bit too overwhelming.
Garrett Kletjian, who previously kept his 2015 purchase of the item of clothing for $137,500 anonymous, said the gravity of his acquisition hit him almost as soon as it was delivered to his house. Being in charge of such a recognisable piece of rock n roll attire was apparently more stressful than owning a motor racing team (which he does – that’s why I said that).
“I opened it up and it immediately hits me: ‘Oh, now I’m also going to be responsible for this'”, he tells Rolling Stone. “It was kind of like when my children were born years ago; I was so happy to see them, but then I was like, ‘Oh no…'”
It hasn’t been washed and since 2015 has been kept in a gun safe. Has Kletjian ever taken it out and paraded around in it for a while? Maybe knocked out a few Nirvana tunes on the guitar while wearing it? No. Although he admits that he put it on for less than a minute once, which just made things worse.
“It’s kind of a weird, powerful thing when you do something like that, when we put on somebody else’s [clothes]”, he says. “It’s like when they say you should walk in somebody else’s shoes. When I put that on, I was like, ‘Ah, no, God, I don’t want to wear this'”.
Still, he managed to stomach keeping the cardigan around for long enough for its price to go up. With bids of $200,000 already in, the famous bit of clothing is expected to sell for up to $300,000. Then someone else can feel its awesome power. And also look at the stains on it, which Kletjian guesses could be chocolate or vomit. Lovely.
