At the Royal College of Music Museum in London, Kurt Cobain’s acoustic guitar will go on show as part of an exhibition exploring Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged performance. This is the first time the acoustic guitar, Cobain’s Martin D-18E, has gone on show in the UK.
The guitar went on auction in 2020, and was the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction when it was bought for over $6 million by Australian entrepreneur Peter Freedman. His intention was to take the guitar on a worldwide exhibition tour, to support performing artists. The showcase at the Royal College of Music Museum in London marks its premiere.
Kurt Cobain Unplugged – The story behind one of music’s most iconic guitars
The Martin D-18E is a rare model and one of the earliest Martins fitted with electric pickups. Cobain’s guitar was modified for his left-handed playing style, and according to Courtney Love, quoted in Billboard, the Martin D-18E was the last guitar Cobain ever played. Following his death in 1994, five months after the Unplugged set, the guitar was inherited by his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, who lost it in a divorce settlement to her former husband Isaiah Silva in 2018, before it went on auction.
The exhibition itself, which was curated by rock journalist Alan di Perna and Royal College of Museum Curator Gabriele Rossi Rognoni, explores the story behind this notable guitar, and the significance of the band’s MTV Unplugged performance in 1993 which marked a shift in sound and showcased a softer side to Nirvana with a more vulnerable and intimate set. Cobain’s acoustic guitar and array of Nirvana’s own songs and covers of David Bowie, the Meat Puppets, and Lead Belly, captured the band’s diverse influences and an exploration away from their alternative rock and grunge roots. Nirvana was also the first band to record an entire MTV Unplugged set in one take.
Reflecting on the set Nirvana’s Dave Grohl said in an interview with American Way magazine, ‘That show was supposed to be a disaster. We hadn’t rehearsed. We weren’t used to playing acoustic. Even the people from MTV thought it was horrible. Then we sat down, the cameras started rolling, and something clicked. It became one of the band’s most memorable performances.’
Accompanying the guitar is also Cobain’s famous olive-green mohair cardigan, worn during the 1993 Unplugged performance. The exhibition will also showcase a selection of the band’s memorabilia from Cobain’s song-writing , gig posters, collectible Nirvana vinyl and the top portion of a soundboard of another guitar from the same series, highlighting the band’s unwavering legacy.
Tickets to see Kurt Cobain Unplugged are available to book on 30 April, with the exhibition opening from 3 June until 18 November 2025 at Royal College of Music Museum
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