Sluggo is known for playing in bands The Grannies and Hullabaloo. During the first U.S. Nirvana tour, Cobain samshed a guitar onstage. The only problem was, the band was living hand-to-mouth and Cobain needed another one for the next gig.

Cobain was crashing at Sluggo’s apartment, and the punk rocker gave Cobain a new guitar in exchange for the broken one.

“There’s not a huge amount of broken Nirvana guitars out there,” said Jacob McMurray, senior curator at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, where the taped-up Fender Mustang in sunburst finish was displayed for a time. Most of Cobain’s smashed guitars amount to “little slivers and fragments” McMurray said.

Cobain also signed this one.

Helen Hall, a broker in England, said it’s the second-highest known price for an item of Cobain memorabilia. Cobain’s Mosrite Gospel Mark IV reportedly sold for $131,000 at a 2006 auction.

McMurray said he hoped the private collector who bought the guitar would allow the instrument to return to Seattle for a Cobain exhibit he is preparing for 2010.