Queen artwork to be auctioned alone after second thrown away

Plans to sell artwork created for a pair of classic Queen albums were thwarted when one was thrown away.

Art director David Costa wanted to sell the original artworks he created for the 1975 vinyl album A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races from 1976.

However, only A Day At The Races can be sold because Mr Costa believes he threw away the cover for the earlier record while clearing his studio.

The artwork had been valued at between £5,000 and £10,000.

"An unwitting triumph of tidiness over posterity, I've now come to the inevitable conclusion that A Night At The Opera became a casualty of my over-enthusiastic effort to begin clearing through 50 years of personal ephemera," said Mr Costa.

"A shame, but in the grand scheme of things, not a global catastrophe."

Going under the hammer in March is the original airbrush-painted front cover, a panel from the rear cover and a pen-and-ink drawing used in the production process. It was based on an original sketch by the band's singer Freddie Mercury.

In 2021, the original artwork for another Queen album, 1977's News Of The World sold in New York for $62,575 (£46,000).

"Original album artwork rarely comes up for auction," said auctioneer Luke Hobbs

"Apart from the sale of one other Queen album and an album by the American rock group Boston, we've very little to go on.

"What makes this all the more important is that this album is an acknowledged classic.

A Day At The Races was released in 1976 and went platinum, reaching number one in the UK album chart as well as in Japan and the Netherlands. It contained the hit singles Somebody To Love and Tie Your Mother Down.

The auction will take place in Corsham on 09 March.

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