Over three decades after his passing, rock legend Freddie Mercury, born Parsi as Farrokh Bulsara, had his collection, titled, ‘Freddie Mercury: A World of his Own’, auctioned at Sotheby’s Auction, in London, by Mary Austin, his former companion and closest friend. This marks the first of six auctions of the belongings of the lead vocalist and pianist of the iconic rock band, ‘Queen’.

A 16th-century Indian miniature depicting ‘A Prince on Horseback With His Entourage’ sold for £266,700, against an estimate of £30,000-50,000. As per Sotheby’s it was, “a nod to Mercury’s ancestry, acquired in the last six months of his life.”

Born on 5^th September, 1946, in Stone Town in the British protectorate of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) to Parsi parents from Gujarat, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, Freddie Mercury attended boarding school in India and arrived in Britain in 1964 after his family fled the Zanzibar Revolution. He studied at St Peter’s School, in Panchgani near Bombay, where he got the nickname ‘Freddie’.

From 1980, to his untimely passing, on 24^th November, 1991, at age 45, he lived in Garden Lodge, a detached Georgian-style villa in Kensington in West London. He filled the elegant house with beautiful objects, which are now being auctioned. In accordance with his wishes, he was given a Zoroastrian funeral.

Auctioneer Oliver Barker, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, observed, “It has been a once-in-a-lifetime privilege for all of us at Sotheby’s to celebrate the legend that is Freddie Mercury.”

The month-long exhibition of many of the 35,000 items are being sold in 1,500 lots – the first auction fetched £12.2 million, against an estimated £4.8 million. A record 2,000 people from 61 countries registered to bid.

The top lot of the sale, Mercury’s adored Yamaha grand piano (1973) — the instrument he used to compose the iconic songs, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ and ‘Somebody to Love’ — sold to an online bidder for £1,742,000. The first item to cross the million-pound barrier was the autographed working lyrics for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (c. 1974), which fetched £1,379,000, while ‘We Are The Champions’ (c. 1977) went for £317,500; ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ (c. 1978) for £317,500; ‘Killer Queen’ (c.1974) for £279,400; and ‘Somebody to Love’ (c. 1976) for £241,300.