Gordon Lightfoot's performance guitar sells for more than $300,000 at estate auction

Memorabilia from legendary canadian river instrumentalist Gordon Lightfoot's landed estate was auctioned away today by A.H. Wilkens in Toronto.

Up for grabs were items from his calling like stage clothes, awards, platinum and gold records, instruments — including guitars from Lightfoot's lead guitarist Terry Clements — and rarely-seen photographs of Lightfoot with his contemporaries, as well as other personal items.

"We have had a huge amount of interest," said Andrea Zeifman, chief of operations and senior appraiser for A.H. Wilkens. She noted that the auction house has seen interest from a lot of new participating bidders, both from across Canada and internationally.

The biggest-ticket item was Lightfoot's performance guitar, which sold to the highest bid of $380,000. He used the iconic guitar throughout his career, and made a unique modification to the back of the instrument to reduce any clashing noises with his signature belt buckle, Zeifman said. It also features a smiley face decal from his daughter.

Another eye-catching lot was his real vintage tiger rug, which lay in his bedroom at home. It went for a final bid of $3,600.

The money raised from the auction will go back to the estate, the auction house said. As well, some of it will be invested into the Orillia Museum of Art & History, which houses a permanent exhibition on the Orillia-born musician.

"All my life I've been a huge Gordon Lightfoot fan," said Glenn Morgan, one of the auction attendees. "I've seen him countless times in concert, from Vancouver to Toronto.... He was just a fantastic songwriter, and a great Canadian."

"I would certainly like to get a few pieces, you know, of history, of Gordon Lightfoot history. It would mean a lot to me," Morgan said.

Colin Cripps, a musician and member of the band Blue Rodeo, was also at the auction. He said seeing the items available there was "bittersweet."

"You're not just seeing Gord as the famous Gordon Lightfoot ... But you're also seeing all the early years of when he was developing," Cripps said.

"He was a small town kid, basically, and so you see that in the collection.... I'm touched by that too, 'cause I sort of feel like we all have that story in our own way, you know?"

The sale comes just weeks after the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald, an event famously chronicled by Lightfoot in his song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Among the lots available at auction were documents given to Lightfoot containing details about the ship and its crash. One takeaway from these documents, Zeifman said, is that Lightfoot's song actually helped bring about changes in marine regulations by drawing attention to human tragedy of the event.

Lightfoot died in 2023, at a hospital in Toronto, at the age of 84.

Reporter

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