Biggie's '$6 plastic crown' sells at auction for nearly $600k
16 September 2020, 13:40 | Updated: 16 September 2020, 13:52
Late Hip-Hop legend Biggie's iconic crown has been auctioned in New York for an astonishing price.
The Notorious B.I.G's (aka Biggie's) iconic crown that he wore for a photoshoot a few days before his passing, has sold for an extravagant price at an auction in New York.
Biggie's iconic crown to sell for up to $300k at auction
On Tuesday evening (Sept 15) the item sold for a whopping $594,750 at Sotheby's in the city, where the rapper was born and raised.
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Biggie's iconic crown was originally signed by the rapper days before his death. The rapper was tragically killed in the early hours of March 9, 1997.
The hip hop artist was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California. Upon examination, only the final shot was fatal.
The crown exceeded the auction estimate prices that it had initially been valued at. The crown was estimated to sell for between $200,000 and $300,000, however, it's been sold for almost $600k.
According to HotNewHipHop, the crown was only $6 when it was bought for Biggie.
The crown was among a sizable collection of hip hop memorabilia auctioned off by Sotheby's in an sale dedicated to the genre's "history and cultural impact."
Notorious B.I.G.'s crown was put up for sale by photographer Barron Claiborne – who had savoured the item since his "King of New York" debut for Rap Pages magazine.
Amongst Biggie's crown, there were a collection of letters written by a teenage Tupac Shakur to a fellow student at the Baltimore School for the Arts, which also was sold.
The auction house described 'Pac's letters as "incredibly sweet and at times steamy" and sold for $75,600.
In a press statement released before the sale, the vice president of Sotheby's books and manuscripts department, Cassandra Hatton, revealed the significance of the items.
Hatton revealed that Biggie's crown and Tupac's letters offered and "introspective look, in their own way, at the personalities behind their respective public personas."
"Since its birth in the Bronx in the 1970s, hip hop has become a global cultural force, whose massive influence continues to shape all realms of culture: music, fashion, design, art, film, social attitudes, language and more," she is quoted as saying.
Hatton added "This sale is a celebration of the origins and early eras of that influence."
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