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 The 1964 Fender Stratocaster, along with five song lyrics
left on a private airplane by the songwriter and his band in the
months after the Rhode Island festival, were part of six lots in
a special sale of Dylan material in New York.
"A tremendous amount of international interest was generated at
the time of the sale's announcement, and today's result
justifies the mythic status of this guitar in the annals of
music history," Tom Lecky, a specialist at Christie's, said in a
statement.
An absentee bidder bought the Fender Stratocaster with a classic
sunburst finish, its original case and black leather guitar
strap for nearly double its high pre-sale estimate.
The previous auction record for a guitar was for Eric Clapton's
Fender Stratocaster, which fetched $959,500 in 2004.
Only one of the five lyrics sheets sold for $20,000, bringing
the auction total to $985,000. That was a handwritten and typed
version of 1965's "I Wanna Be Your Lover."
Friday's sale came just a day after rocker Bruce Springsteen's
1974 handwritten draft for "Born to Run" went for $197,000 in
New York.
Rolling Stone magazine has cited Dylan's performance at the
Newport festival as one of the most notable events in music
history, according to Christie's.
"I did this very crazy thing," Dylan, who was 24, said at the
time. "I didn't know what was going to happen, but they
certainly booed. I'll tell you that."
Dylan, one of rock's most influential songwriters, wrote and
sang "Blowin' in the Wind," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Mr.
Tambourine Man" and the 2001 Oscar-winning "Things Have
Changed." He also used the guitar in 1965 for recording sessions
for the album "Bringing It All Back Home."
The guitar and lyrics, which were found in the guitar case, were
authenticated and put up for sale by the daughter of Vic Quinto,
a New Jersey-based commercial pilot who had been hired by
Dylan's manager to fly his artists.
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 Dylan had claimed ownership of the guitar in 2012
and was involved in a legal dispute with Quinto's daughter, Dawn
Peterson, after she brought it to the attention of the television
show public television show "History Detective," which authenticated
it.
Christie's said the ownership dispute had been settled. No details
were available.
"Dylan's representatives were aware of the auction and did not
contest it," a spokesperson for Christie's said.
Dylan, who was greeted by early folk fans with cries of "Judas" at
some of his early electric rock shows in the 1960s, is still
generating headlines at 72. He was awarded France's prestigious
Legion d'Honneur award last month in Paris, but is now being
investigated there after a Croatian community organization in France
filed a legal complaint alleging that comments he made to Rolling
Stone magazine last year violated French racial hatred laws.
Neither the singer nor Rolling Stone issued any comment on the
investigation.
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; editing
by Eric Kelsey and David Gregorio)
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