George Michael's 'Faith' Guitar Sells for £238,000 at Auction as His Late Assistant's Family Objects to the Sale
The guitar Michael played in the 1987 'Faith' video — a gift to his longtime assistant Siobhan Bailey — went under the hammer at Sworders on Thursday at more than double its guide price, while Bailey's brother told the BBC she would have been horrified by the sale held in her name.
George Michael is the second-biggest search in the United States overnight, and the driver is a guitar. The instrument he played in the 1987 music video for 'Faith' — a 1940s Gretsch Synchromatic from the collection of his longtime personal assistant, Siobhan Bailey — sold at a Sworders auction in London on Thursday for £238,000, about $318,160, according to Digital Music News' report of the sale. The guide price had been £60,000 to £120,000.
The guitar was the headline lot in 'Faith & Fame,' a 32-lot sale of memorabilia from Bailey's collection that also included signed photographs, invitations and presentation discs. Bailey worked for Michael for about 20 years, starting in 1984, the year Wham! had its first No. 1 hit, and Michael later gave her the guitar as a gift. Guitarist magazine recently described it as 'arguably the most famous Gretsch Synchromatic in the world.' Other lots reported from the sale included a gold disc for 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,' which sold for £4,500, and a signed copy of Queen's 'Five Live' EP owned by Michael, at £7,000.
The sale went ahead over her family's objection. Bailey died in 2014 without a registered will, and the collection passed to her estranged husband, Ian Belcher, who put it up for auction. Her brother Gerard told the BBC she would be 'horrified' that her 'personal cherished possessions' had been 'sold off to the highest bidder,' and in a letter to Sworders the family called the auction a 'breach of privacy,' the use of her name 'frankly dishonorable' and profiting from the collection 'egregiously shameful.' Gerard Bailey said his sister had begun drafting a will that would have left the collection to her nieces and nephews, but it was never registered.
Michael died on Christmas Day 2016 at the age of 53. A decade on, the market for his memorabilia is still setting records his estate never sees — the jacket from the 'Faith' video sold earlier this year for £176,000 — and Thursday's guitar result, at roughly double the top estimate, is the latest proof that the singer's name still moves both an auction room and a national search board.
