Sir Elton John’s Steinway Piano That Traveled the World For 20 Years Sold for $915,000 at Heritage Auctions

DALLAS, Texas (July 17, 2021) - Sir Elton John's much-loved Steinway Grand Piano, (circa 1972) sold for an astounding $915,000 Saturday, July 17, during Heritage Auctions' Entertainment & Music memorabilia auction.

Aggressive bidding skyrocketed the auction price as a bidding war broke out between phone bidders while others bid through the internet on Heritage LIVE!.

Sir Elton even signed the piano on the gilded cast-iron frame: In permanent black ink, he wrote, 'Enjoy this as much as I have, Elton John.' Talk about a personal touch for his personal favorite guitar.

It was offered at auction by Curtis Schwartz, a longtime music engineer whose name can be found on albums by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Lush, Cutting Crew, the Bee Gees and Yes. Schwartz initially had no idea it was Elton John's piano, the singular the maestro used as a touring piano throughout the 1970's and 80's.

'I was only happy it was a great piano,' Schwartz says now. 'I just assume Elton John would have a piano in every city, and this was just one of his, like, 122 pianos.'

Indeed, this is the very Steinway seen in iconic photos of Sir Elton at Dodger Stadium during two sold-out gigs in October 1975, when he played to more than 100,000 people - including his parents. In time Schwartz would come to learn that this Steinway had been played during hundreds of gigs spanning two decades, culminating with 91 concerts during its final year of use in 1993.

It traveled the world - and even shared stages with two Beatles. Sir Elton played it that November 1974 night at Madison Square Garden when John Lennon showed up to pay off a bet and play three songs, among them their hit single 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.' It was Lennon's final live show. And Paul McCartney used that very Steinway during 'Let it Be,' the Live Aid finale witnessed by some billion viewers worldwide in 1985.

It was also been used by Freddie Mercury during Queen's 'A Day at the Races' tour in 1977. In fact, the piano is accompanied by an email from Peter Hince, Queen's road manager at the time, in which he notes that the singer had been frustrated with the endless buffet of mediocre pianos that showed up on the road, and asked to borrow John's for the '77 tour. Wrote Hince, 'No doubt having the same quality piano ever show gave Fred more confidence in his playing and of course the sound quality too.

Yes, one that Elton John sat in for 20 glorious years while entertaining the world.
Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.

Heritage also enjoys the highest online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,400,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of five million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit.

Eric Bradley, Director, Public Relations
214-409-1871; [email protected]

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