Freddie Mercury's sister secretly spent £3m on his memorabilia at auction

Telegraph

23-04-2025

Freddie Mercury's sister secretly spent £3million to buy his memorabilia in a war with his former girlfriend, according to reports.
Kashmira Bulsara, Mercury's 73-year-old younger sister, paid over the odds to keep the Queen singer's belongings in the family at an auction in September 2023, The Sun reported.
Mercury's belongings were sold by his former partner, Mary Austin, and auctioned by Sotheby's.
The collection included everything from stage costumes to a Scrabble set and the 1941 Wurlitzer jukebox.
Ms Bulsara and her son Jamal Zook bid for the items anonymously, as she did not want Ms Austin to know they were keeping the belongings in the family.
'Kashmira was angry and upset to see so many of her beloved brother's possessions become available for anyone to buy,' a source told The Sun.
'So she went for a private viewing, anonymously, with Jamal and her PA before the auction to see which bits she wanted to try to get. Then when it came to auction time, Kashmira's PA went in-person to Sotheby's and was on the phone to Kashmira throughout.'
Ms Bulsara purchased a Wurlitzer Model 850 jukebox for £406,400 and a £139,700 waistcoat with portraits of Freddie's six cats etched into the design.
Her most expensive purchase was a military-style jacket made for Freddie's 39th birthday, which sold for £457,200.
She also bought eight pages of draft lyrics of Queen's 1974 hit Killer Queen for £279,400.
'Kashmira watched online and told her PA how much to bid for each item,' the source said.
'They had set aside a huge budget so were actually very happy with the final figure laid out, despite paying well over the estimated price for each one.'
They added: 'Of course, Kashmira appreciates how adored Freddie was across the world, but she was saddened to think of some of his sentimental belongings not being with his loved ones.'
When Mercury died in 1991, he left his West London home, Garden Lodge, and its contents to his closest companion, Ms Austin.
Ms Austin made a total of £40 million in 2023 after selling 1,400 items previously owned by Mercury.
The sale, titled Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own, was estimated to be £11.3 million, but the final auction surpassed that.
Around 140,000 visitors attended a pre-sales exhibition, with 41,800 bids across six sessions and buyers from more than 50 different countries.
Ms Austin donated some of the proceeds to the Mercury Phoenix Trust – an Aids charity set up by Freddie's Queen bandmates and their manager Jim Beach – and the Elton John Aids Foundation.
Sotheby's recreated rooms from the Queen star's west London home, Garden Lodge, in its Bond Street salerooms.
The singer shared the house with his beloved cats and the lots included a surprising number of cat-related items, from ornaments, books and paintings, to an issue of Catmopolitan magazine.
Mercury dated Ms Austin from 1969 until the late 1970s and wrote Queen's 1975 song Love Of My Life as a tribute to her.
Their relationship ended after the Queen singer came out as gay, but they remained close friends until his death.