After his untimely death this past April, the world mourned the artist forever known as Prince in its various, unique ways. Purple Rain was re-released into theaters, his albums spiked the music sales charts, and various artists covered his impressive canon to show that he would never be forgotten. One auction house recently memorialized the artist's passing with a sale of a black and white blazer and ruffled shirt from Prince's wardrobe in Purple Rain. And for both items, the sale fetched an unbelievable $96,000... per piece!
This news comes from a recent item in The Guardian, which reported on the sale by the organization Profiles in History, which is known as the "world's largest auctioneer of Hollywood memorabilia." The items were on the block during the recent "Hollywood Auction 83" event, which took place between June 29th and July 1st in California, and saw other items such as an Eagle 5 model from Spaceballs and one of Daniel Craig's tuxedos from Spectre also go up for sale.
What's most impressive about the sale of this blazer and shirt from Purple Rain, is that they were only expected to fetch anywhere between $3,000-$5,000 for the shirt and $6,000-$8,000 for the blazer. And these were thresholds set before Prince had passed away late April, as these pieces had been slated for auction prior to his passing. But, as with any artist's passing, the memorabilia connected to their most famed work skyrocketed in value, and the winning bids only confirmed the 1984 film's place in history. Feel free to take a trip back in time with the official trailer to Purple Rain, included below for your viewing pleasure.
It's been a rough year for celebrity passings, as Prince was one of many iconic figures to have left us during the first half of 2016. Still, with the sale of memorabilia, fans can own a piece of the legends that they once saw on the big screen, and in their own way cope with their feelings of loss. We congratulate the winning bidders to both the blazer and shirt from Purple Rain, and we hope that their collections are all the more rewarding with these priceless artifacts among their effects.
You can pour over the entire "Hollywood Auction 83" collection through the catalog shown here.
