Mick Jagger, the legendary founding member of The Rolling Stones, wrote a series of love letters in the summer of 1969 to his former African-American lover Marsha Hunt while he was in Australia working on the film Ned Kelly.
Yesterday, these same love letters sold at auction for $301,472.
Hunt asked Sotheby’s to sell the letters on her behalf. Jagger’s relationship with Hunt is reportedly the inspiration behind the 1971 hit song “Brown Sugar,” according to TIME.
“When a serious historian finally examines how and why Britain’s boy bands affected international culture and politics, this well-preserved collection of Mick Jagger’s hand written letters will be a revelation,” Hunt said in a statement distributed by the auction house.
The letters were originally expected to reach a maximum bid of $160,000, but a private collector bidding by phone on Wednesday took all 10 of the letters for double the auction estimate, according to the Associated Press.
Soethby’s book specialist Gabriel Heaton said the letters uncover “a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old with wide-ranging intellectual and artistic interests.”
Follow Marquise Francis on Twitter @mKfly