Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler will be auctioning over 120 of his instruments at Christie’s in January.
The rock veteran’s collection encompasses instruments used over his five-decade career, including the 1983 Gibson Les Paul used to record ‘Money For Nothing’ and ‘Brothers In Arms’, which was also played at the iconic Live Aid concert in 1985.
Other instruments being sold include his coveted 1959 Gibson Les Paul, for an estimated £300,000 to £500,000, and a mandolin previously owned by blues player Yank Rachell, estimated at £300 to £500.
25 per cent of the auction’s proceeds will benefit various charities, including the Red Cross, wildlife advocates Tusk, and children’s non-profit, Brave Hearts of the North East.
Speaking to the BBC, the 74-year-old expressed that with age, he finally feels at peace with downsizing his guitar collection. “I’m looking now at about 20 guitars that I use to make records and there are at least 100 other ones that aren’t going to get played,” he said. “We’ve had great times together, so I am sad to see some of them go – but I’ve got enough left to play. More than enough.”
Knopfler, alongside his brother David, drummer Pick Withers, and bassist John Illsley formed Dire Straits in 1977 before releasing several successful albums, including their 1978 debut, which included classic rock staple ‘Sultans of Swing’, and their 1985 LP ‘Brothers In Arms’, the UK’s eighth best-selling album of all time. They have sold over 100 million records globally, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
Dire Straits briefly split in 1988 before reforming to release one more studio album, 1991’s ‘On Every Street’. They permanently disbanded in 1995, after a total of six records.
Recently, Illsley expressed that while the quartet continues to be offered large sums of money for a reunion, they remain uninterested in reforming. Speaking about the band’s former manager Paul Crockford, he quipped: “Every time we have lunch, [he] says to me, ‘I wish people would stop offering me huge amounts of money to put [Dire Straits] back together.”
In 2008, Illsley revealed that though he had approached Knopfler with the possibility of a reunion, he ultimately declined. Illsley stated: “I think we’ve definitely got one more tour left in us, and probably another record too. [But Knopfler’s] doing different kinds of music now. He’s doing incredibly well as a solo artist, so hats off to him. He’s having a perfectly good time doing what he’s doing.”
Following Dire Straits’ disbandment, Knopfler pursued a solo career, where he experimented with folk and roots music in albums including 2004’s ‘Shangri-La’ and 2006’s ‘All The Roadrunning’, a duets album with Emmylou Harris. He is currently working on his tenth solo album.