Kurt Cobain's hospital shirt from Nirvana's performance at the 1992 Reading Festival is up for auction. Fans with plenty of disposable income can bid on this cool collectible on the RR Auction website until March 14th. Amid rumors about his health, Cobain appeared on the Reading Festival stage wearing the hospital gown and sitting in a wheelchair pushed by journalist Everett True. Then he tried to get up and pretend to collapse. He then performed 25 songs in a set released on CD and DVD in 2009. The auction house RR Auction estimates the value of the piece at around 50,000 USD (the equivalent of around 49,000 euros).
The listing includes a letter of provenance from a fan who apparently received the hospital gown from a distraught Courtney Love at a Cobain vigil in Seattle as a teenager. The fan explains:
“A few days after his death, there was a vigil for Cobain at the Seattle Center... A dozen of us stayed long after the festivities ended. We sat in the flag pavilion, listened to music… and just hung out among the candles and flowers that fans had previously placed there. Late in the evening, Courtney Love, accompanied by Kat Bjelland from Babes in Toyland, showed up with a bag filled with Kurt's clothes. She was visibly pained and continued to hand out the clothes as she followedLittle things about Kurt's life asked. She handed me his hospital gown from the legendary Reading Festival performance in 1992. She cried on my shoulder for a while. I tried to say something reassuring about his love for her and she pushed me away and insisted that he only loved Frances (his daughter)... The whole incident was sad. And strange. And it totally crushed my teenage spirit.”
The auction house describes the hospital gown as "museum quality" and in "good condition, with stains and expected wear." Those on tighter budgets who are not bidding at the auction can watch the performance in the video below:
