David Bowie’s Hair Sold for $18,750

In 1983, an employee of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London took a lock of David Bowie’s hair to help create a color-matched wig for his wax figurine. That lock of hair, which the employee kept in a frame, went up for auction this past weekend in Los Angeles, where it netted $18,750. (That’s over $14,000 more than the Associated Press’ original estimation of a $4,000 sale.) According to the listing, a portion of the proceeds will go to the Soi Dog Foundation–an animal welfare center in Thailand. Read a letter the employee wrote about the hair and see some photos of it here.

Also sold at the auction was Prince’s Yellow Cloud guitar, which went for $137,500. According to Prince’s former guitar technician Zeke Clark, Prince “used [it] in most of his early videos & touring performances & album recordings.” Clark also says Prince “broke the neck of this guitar at a French T.V. show” in 1994, and that once he repaired the guitar, Prince “then used in recording more albums, up until the symbol guitar was born.” Read more about the Yellow Cloud guitar and see photos here.

Read Pitchfork's “Afterword” tribute to Bowie. Find more on Prince and his legacy here.

via Matthew Strauss