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Why the sale of Jim Irsay’s Greatest Guitar Collection On Earth is a sad moment in guitar history

October 31, 2025

Very nearly four years ago, a feature appeared on the cover of Guitar Magazine heralding “The Greatest Guitar Collection On Earth”. Given that over the years we’ve brought you an up-close look at some of the most interesting and drool-worthy guitar collections on the planet, including the personal treasures of some of the biggest artists of all time, that was quite a claim.
But the collection of Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was different. This wasn’t just a bunch of Golden Era instruments with six-figure price tags – this was a remarkable archive of not just classic desirable musical instruments, but the very fabric of rock ‘n’ roll history.
Reeling off just a smattering of the artist instruments in the collection is enough to take your breath away. There’s John Lennon’s 1963 Gretsch 6120 Country Gent that he played on Paperback Writer, there’s George Harrison’s SG that he used on The White Album, Ringo’s Ed Sullivan Show drum kit, Bob Dylan’s Newport Folk Festival Strat, Jerry Garcia’s Tiger, Clapton’s ‘Fool’ SG, David Gilmour’s Black Strat, Kurt Cobain’s Teen Spirit Mustang…
On and on it goes, to the point where we didn’t even have space to include the guitars he owned that were played by Hendrix, Van Halen, The Edge, Cash and so many more in our feature. Imagine that? It is almost certainly the most comprehensive and historic private collection of genuine guitar history that exists in the world.
And now, following his death earlier this year at the age of just 65, every bit of this painstakingly assembled collection is going to go under the hammer – with Christie’s New York conducting a series of sales in March 2026.
David Gilmour’s iconic Black Strat, which was one of the crown jewels of the collection (Image: Eleanor Jane)
When I read that news yesterday, my first reaction was one of disappointment and no small amount of sadness. A weird thing to experience when talking about what was effectively a billionaire’s hobby, assembled at the sort of expense that can best be described as gauche given the wealth imbalance that exists in the world today.
But the thing is, on some level, Irsay understood this. He understood how privileged he was to be able to spend tens of millions of dollars buying the instruments that literally shaped the music that he loved, and he invested a significant amount of his own time and money into ensuring that these treasures did not spend their lives trapped behind glass and locked away from the general public.
Jim Irsay was an eccentric character with some well-publicised demons, but he was not shy about sharing his collection with the world.
Between 2021 and his death, highlights from the collection travelled across the country as a living museum. The Jim Irsay Collection would rock up in a city, and go on display to the general public so people could experience these iconic pieces of pop culture history up close.
What’s more, the city would also be treated to a performance from the Jim Irsay Band – a revolving cast of all-star musicians that included the likes of Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tom Bucovac, Buddy Guy, Stephen Stills and Vince Gill – who would perform using the collection’s instruments so the audience could hear and feel them in the way they were meant to be experienced.
Irsay purchased Jerry Garcia’s Tiger for $957,500 in 2002. Built by luthier Doug Irwin, it was the Grateful Dead star’s main guitar from 1979 onwards and in 1995 was the last guitar he ever played in public (Image: Eleanor Jane)
“History is so important,” Irsay told Guitar.com in 2021. “So much of what we’re about as a world, as humanity, is tied to music. It’s been that way ever since the cavemen were around the fire… To me, it’s really important that the museum is alive. How you experience it when you walk in? I want it to be interactive.”
Irsay spoke to us in that interview about a plan to create a more permanent museum for his collection – something similar to Seattle’s MoPOP, which was created to display the similarly remarkable collection of late Microsoft founder Paul Allen.
That dream sadly seems to have died with Irsay, and the world’s most remarkable and important guitar collection is to be broken up and sold piecemeal to collectors who may be more inclined to keep the guitars safely hidden from the public than their previous steward.
I don’t begrudge Irsay’s family for not wanting to continue his passion project – it was his thing, after all. The sheer size, scope and value of the collection made it a mammoth logistical undertaking.
Jim was happy to pour his time and resources into, but you can’t blame his daughters – who also have the small matter of running an NFL team to worry about – for not sharing that same passion. Still, it was clear that he took his responsibility to his collection very seriously.
This 1977 Les Paul Deluxe was formerly owned by Neal Schon and featured on the band’s smash hit Don’t Stop Believin’ (Image: Eleanor Jane)
“Like any music lover or fan I want to try to have fun with it and share it,” he told us. “But I don’t possess it. I don’t have any ownership over it. I want to make that very fucking clear. With the museum it’s about, ‘How do you create the Willy Wonka factory? How do you sell the golden tickets?’ I can’t be Pete Townshend or Chrissie Hynde or Natalie Merchant or whoever, because that’s just not me. But I can be a steward and a curator.”
No doubt in part because he viewed himself as a custodian of these instruments, Irsay famously turned down an offer of over a billion dollars (yes, a billion) to sell the collection outright and move it to Dubai. In Irsay’s words the plan was “kind of like what’s been going on in golf”.
It showed the strength of Irsay’s conviction that these were not simply collector’s pieces to be traded as status symbols for the fantastically wealthy.
They are vitally important objects in the cultural and social history of America – and they should be preserved and accessible to its people. Not hidden away in private collections or whisked overseas to be used as tools of political soft power.
Whatever happens in next year’s sale, I have no doubt we’ll have to update our list of the most expensive guitars sold at auction. It would be nice if some of the guitars ended up taking a similar path that Rory Gallagher’s guitar did, and end up in museums and public spaces for all to appreciate – but even then they’ll surely be scattered across the world.
The Greatest Guitar Collection On Earth will be no more, and as guitarists and lovers of the history of guitar music, we’ll all be a little poorer for it.
Bob Dylan’s ‘Newport’ Strat. (Image: Eleanor Jane)
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