Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's busted guitar auctioned for $600,000

The musical instruments used and owned by Kurt Cobain, the frontman of Nirvana, are deemed highly valuable owing to their historical significance and association with the greatest iconic musician of all time. However, his broken equipment, especially his guitars, is no less treasured.

According to an auction house, a guitar that Cobain destroyed on stage during a performance sold for nearly $600,000 — a price that surpasses the original value of the stringed instrument by leaps and bounds.

The smashed black Fender Stratocaster, which has been restored, is not playable anymore, Kody Frederick of Julien's Auctions said earlier this month.

The guitar bears the signatures of all three members of the rock band whose songs became national anthems for their fans.

The auctioneers had estimated the instrument to fetch only $60,000.

Instead, it went for $595,000, Julien's said in a statement, calling the total "astounding."

"You can see here the break that took place as he slammed down the guitar, where the neck here kind of connects, as well as down here on the bottom where he slammed the guitar down," Frederick told AFP earlier in May.

"Kurt Cobain, when he was on stage when he played, he was a machine. The man was angry, and you could feel that on stage. And you would feel that by the way he would treat his instruments.

"This broken element, in a strange way, from this broken musician, that really defined this rough and tumble era of music."

Nirvana's golden hits, most of them the brainchildren of Cobain, included "Come As You Are," "Lithium" and the 1991 breakout "Smells Like Teen Spirit" -- a track that became anthemic for a generation of alienated teenagers.

Substance addiction, depression, and a riotous marriage sent Cobain down the path of self-destruction and he committed suicide to put an end to his pain.

During the three days of the auction that ended on Sunday souvenirs belonging to Eddie Van Halen, Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury, Bill Wyman and Janet Jackson were also put on sale.