Antique piano owned by Elton John auctioned in Texas

An antique piano formerly used by Elton John and pictured on an album cover was auctioned off over the weekend for $164,500, well below the minimum estimate of $300,000, organizers said on Sunday. The other big seller at Heritage Galleries' auction in Dallas on Saturday was a guitar used by the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain. It sold for $117,500, down from a minimum estimate of $250,000. (All sale prices include a 17.5% buyer's fee.) The instrument with the highest estimate, the upright bass used by late Motown session musician James Jamerson on such early '60s tunes as "My Guy" and "Heat Wave," failed to sell. Featured in the recent documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, it carried a minimum estimate of $400,000 and was subsequently being offered on Heritage's Web site for $235,000. The Elton John piano, currently on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, was sold on behalf of an Indianapolis collector to an anonymous foreign buyer who plans to ship it to an undisclosed location overseas, a Heritage spokesman said. The white 1910-era A-Day Birdcage upright is pictured on the American version of John's Empty Sky album. The Cobain guitar, a right-handed 1960s Mosrite Gospel that was modified for the left-handed musician, was sold by him in 1992 before Nirvana gained worldwide fame. Cobain committed suicide in 1994. The name of the buyer was not disclosed. (Reuters)