Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the taping of MTV Unplugged in 1993. Photo / Getty Images
Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the taping of MTV Unplugged in 1993. Photo / Getty Images
The cigarette-burned cardigan worn by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain for an iconic MTV Unplugged set has sold for a whopping $526,000.
The Smells Like Teen Spirit singer wore the grungy knit at the recording in 1993, which has since become one of the most-watched recorded performances from the band.
Nirvana evenwent on to make an album out of the show, the first release after Cobain's death in April 1994.
This week, it was Cobain's unwashed cardigan from the show which had fans in a tizz, with Julien's Auction hosting a bidding war for the clothing item he wore during the set.
According to Rolling Stone, the cardigan has a missing button and two cigarette burns and it "smells like a grandmother's musty attic".
Regardless, it's just been sold for over half a million dollars.
The cardigan was one of more than a dozen items put up for the highest bidder for the "Icons & Idols: Rock 'n' Roll" auction, including collectibles from Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Michael Jackson and Madonna.
The garment was put up for auction to mark 25 years since the singer's untimely death, when the 27-year-old was found at his Seattle home by an electrician who had come to fit a home security system.
The unwashed, cigarette-burned cardigan was put up for auction to mark 25 years since the singer's untimely death. Photo / AP
He had shot himself in the head and was found to have had a large amount of heroin in his system.
Earlier this year, the Nirvana frontman's hospital gown from his legendary Reading Festival set went on sale for over $75,000.
Cobain was pushed on to the stage in a wheelchair at the 1992 performance, considered one of the band's greatest sets.
Two years later Cobain took his life, and his on-off partner Courtney Love gave the gown to a fan at a vigil.
The fan kept hold of it for 25 years before deciding to consign it for sale.
As for the olive green cardigan sold this week, it was previously owned by Garrett Kletjian, the owner of professional race car team Forty7 Motorsports, who bought it for $201,000 in 2015 and kept it in a locked gun safe.
He told Rolling Stone of owning the knitted slice of music history: "I opened it up and it immediately hits me: 'Oh, now I'm also going to be responsible for this.' It was kind of like when my children were born years ago; I was so happy to see them, but then I was like, 'Oh no …'"
Kletjian confirmed that he had tried the cardigan on once, but took it off after 40 seconds.
"It's kind of a weird, powerful thing when you do something like that, when we put on somebody else's [clothes]," he added.
