When Kurt Cobain took his own life in 1994, he also submitted to the process of cremation that selfishly left little of his corporeal form behind to be sold and distributed among fans. Fortunately, many enterprising individuals since have stepped in to fill the void, offering the chance to buy everything from Cobain’s diaries to his childhood home and mattress to his underwear. Meanwhile, his less tangible “legacy” has been used to foster video games, beer commercials, Broadway musicals, and the reason people listen to Courtney Love. But now, with even the stuff that was in Cobain’s pockets at the time of his suicide being emptied out, the “grieving Cobain” industry has been forced to move on to the stuff that was just sort of in his general neighborhood when he died.
Kicking off that trend, a pair of benches that sat in a park near Cobain’s house—where they soon became a makeshift memorial for fans to scrawl messages, lyrics, and the like—are now up for sale, for your own makeshift purposes. Hamilton’s Antique & Estate Auctions is currently accepting bids on the former Viretta Park benches, which had their original, graffiti-covered wood slats replaced in 2008. Those slats were then rescued from a landfill, and they’ve since been attached to new bench pipes “for display” and, eventually, for selling.
Right now the high bid is at $130 with just over 24 hours left, so you’ll have to move relatively fast if you want to secure these “rare find” dumpster benches where some people once sat and pretended to be sad. They’re sure to spark all kinds of conversation in your home, from “Why do you have these?” to “Um…”
For fans who can’t afford to buy the Kurt Cobain memorial benches, it’s still free to listen to his music and just leave it at that.