An auction of items that belonged to the late producer Avicii has raised roughly $750,000 for charity.
Taking place in the producer’s native Stockholm on Tuesday (Oct. 1), the auction happened at Auktionsverk in front of a crowded audience. The sale was made up of 267 items, including shoes, instruments, clothing and other personal effects related to Avicii’s career in music.
A representative for the auction house said that bids came in from more than 40 countries, with a 2015 Fender Telecaster being among the highest grossing items, selling for 240,000 SEK, or approximately $23,000. Other items drawing high bids included a Martin Custom X Series acoustic guitar, a pair of Sennheiser headphones, a Miami Marlins cap and an original contact sheet of portraits of Avicii by photographer Mark Seliger.
All items involved in the sale in the auction were donated by the late producer’s family. The entirety of the money raised will go to the Tim Bergling Foundation, which was created after the artist’s 2018 suicide and which works to promote mental health awareness and suicide prevention among young people.
“It feels fantastic to convey this significant amount to The Tim Bergling Foundation,” Cecilia Gave, CEO of Stockholms Auktionsverk, says in a statement. “We are very pleased to see how The Avicii Collection has also appealed to a younger audience. Many here in the hall have placed their very first auction bids today, and it feels very honorable for us to be a part of that.”
Indeed, on the Avicii Reddit page, many fans shared comments about their purchases, with the person who purchased the leather jacket Avicii wore on the Stories album cover and at the American Music Awards writing that the item is “right now with me on its way to Paris. It will be professionally protected and framed and displayed in my music studio room at home.”
