Yoshiki Signature Piano by Kawai
The biggest celebrity auction for the Japanese Earthquake appeal, Yahoo! Japan’s Charity Auction as be nearing an end, it becomes more interesting. Yoshiki, leader of X Japan, one of the biggest rock bands to ever capture the attention of Japanese music fans, put his Crystal Piano up for auction on Sunday, April 17th. About eight minutes into the auction, the bid shot from $.01 to $42,000, and is currently at more than $1.2 million!
The piano is a beautiful instrument; it’s a custom-made, plexi-glass Yoshiki Signature Piano by Kawai and even has Yoshiki’s name engraved on it. Yoshiki used the piano when X Japan played a spate of now-legendary shows at the Tokyo Dome. The piano has 634 interested people who have helped push the current amount to $1,209,701.22. His DNA is on it, said Chase Wang at BAM Marketing. Basically it’s a personal item of his that people would probably want to collect. There’s no other piano out there that has the Yoshiki name on it.
Many celebrities donating to the appeal including Britney Spears. Her pants and top she wore on her first TV commercial for Japan in 1999 have become the big items going under the hammer as part of an online auction, which is currently at $4,136.93.
Yoshiki also has masterminded a celebrity auction via his Yoshiki Foundation America. The Foundation has already received items from Marilyn Manson, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis, comic book legend Stan Lee, Robert Pattinson, James Franco and Reese Witherspoon.
[UPDATE]
20M Bid Shuts Down Yoshiki Auction
A celebrity auction dedicated to Japan earthquake and tsunami relief had to be shut down after runaway bidding for a crystal piano drove the price to $20 million, an auction official said Tuesday. [msnbc]
Yoshiki Signature Piano by Kawai
