Christie’s had estimated the guitar would fetch between $2m and $4m, in line with its web site.
The reside public sale featured gadgets from the gathering of billionaire American businessman Jim Irsay who died in 2025.
Julien Pradels, president of Christie’s Americas, stated: “Lot after lot, we felt like we were making history.
“The Irsay sale did justice to the brilliance of the collector, and the monumental items he introduced collectively – iconic objects that inform the story of our tradition and our occasions.”
Gilmour’s guitar sale surpassed the previous record holder – a retro acoustic-electric 1959 Martin D-18E played by Cobain during Nirvana’s legendary MTV Unplugged performance in 1993, just five months before he died.
It sold for $6m (£4.5m) in 2020.
Thursday’s auction saw another one of Kurt Cobain’s guitars, a blue Fender Mustang featured in the music video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, sell for $6.9 million (£5.3m).
Other items sold at the auction included:
A custom-built guitar, known as ‘Tiger’, owned by the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia – $11.6m (£8.8m)
Handwritten lyrics to Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ – $2.5m (£1.9m)
A drum kit owned by the Beatles’ Ringo Starr – $2.4m (£1.8m)
A trumpet belonging to jazz legend Miles Davis – $1.6m (£1.2m)
Sylvester Stallone’s handwritten script notebook for Rocky – $508,000 (£384,000)
A weigh-in fight robe used by American boxer Muhammad Ali – $444,500 (£335,800)
According to Christie’s web site, the 44 gadgets within the assortment made a complete of $84m (£64m).
