Prince’s “Blue Angel” Cloud 2 electric guitar — “the most significant Prince guitar that’ll ever come up for auction” — sold for a high bid of $563,000 Saturday, exceeding pre- auction estimates.
The 1984 custom-made instrument, long thought to be lost, was played by Prince on the tours in support of Purple Rain, Parade, Sign O’ the Times and Lovesexy, as well as television appearances in the second half of the 1980s.
“In a sea of Clouds — because there are a lot of them — the thing that brings a collectible guitar the most value is how much mojo it has,” Julien’s Auctions consulting specialist Laura Woolley previously told Rolling Stone. “Prince came into the collective consciousness in the Eighties and this was one of his primary performance guitars at that time. So it’s got a lot of mojo.”
Auction house president Darren Julien called the “Blue Angel” the “most significant Prince guitar that’ll ever come up for auction,” although it didn’t break the record for highest-selling Prince guitar: A green model of the Cloud design sold for $700,000 in 2019.
Other notable items sold at Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons event Friday included Elvis Presley’s stage worn ivory macrame belt with accented reflective stones ($298,000, nearly 30 times its pre-auction estimate of $10,000), Johnny Cash’s Valencia acoustic guitar signed by Cash and his fellow Highwaymen Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson ($57,600), Madonna’s “Vogue” white satin gown ($179,200) and more.
Kurt Cobain’s acoustic guitar from Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged concert will hit the auction block Saturday, with bids already reaching $1 million.
