Bob Dylan sells memorabilia for $15 million

Bob Dylan has sold his private collection of 6000 artifacts for an estimated $15 to $20 million.

They were sold by Dylan to the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University Of Tulsa. Most of the items will be put on display in Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, and others will be restricted to scholars and Dylan experts.

The collection includes Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks notebooks, handwritten lyrics to Chimes Of Freedom, Ballad Of A Thin Man and Dignity, along with footage of the singer performing in Toronto’s Massey Hall in 1980, New York’s Supper Club in 1993 and rehearsing for the 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue. His manuscript for book Tarantula is also included.

The archive was originally estimated at $60m, according to the New York Times.

Dylan says: “I’m glad that my archives, which have been collected all these years, have finally found a home and are to be included with the works of Woody Guthrie and especially alongside all the valuable artifacts from the Native American Nations. To me it makes a lot of sense and it’s a great honour.”

Dylan is currently in the studio working on the follow-up to last year’s covers album Shadows In The Night. He is scheduled to tour Japan in April.

BOB DYLAN TOUR DATES 2016

Apr 04: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 05: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 06: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 11: Osaka Festival Hall, Japan
Apr 12: Osaka Festival Hall, Japan
Apr 15: Atsuta Ku Nagoya Congress Centre, Japan
Apr 18: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 19: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 25: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 26: Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, Japan
Apr 28: Yokohama Pacifico, Japan

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.