Kurt Cobain MTV Unplugged Green Cardigan

Like a funeral

On November 18, 1993, Nirvana taped its episode of MTV Unplugged at Sony Music Studios in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. Kurt Cobain asked for the stage to be dressed with stargazer lilies, black candles and a crystal chandelier. When producer Alex Coletti asked whether he meant something like a funeral, Cobain answered: 'Exactly. Like a funeral.'

The band played 14 songs in a single take, six of them covers, including songs by David Bowie, Lead Belly, the Vaselines and the Meat Puppets, whose Cris and Curt Kirkwood joined for three numbers. It closed with 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night,' arranged after Lead Belly's 1944 recording, and Cobain refused an encore because he did not think he could top it.

MTV first aired the show on December 16, 1993. Less than five months after the taping, Cobain was dead at 27. The album, released November 1, 1994, debuted at No. 1 with 310,500 copies in its first week and won Nirvana its only Grammy.

A sweater from somebody's 1960s closet

Fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell traced the cardigan to Manhattan Industries, a New Jersey garment company founded in the mid-1800s, and dated it to roughly 1960 to 1965. It is a blend of acrylic, mohair and Lycra, in an olive green that matched the home-decor palette of its decade. She found a similar Manhattan cardigan advertised in the early 1960s for $15.95.

Cobain most likely bought it secondhand in Seattle, in keeping with a grunge style built on thrift stores, recycled clothes and found objects. It became a favorite in the last year of his life: he wore it for months on tour as well as for Unplugged.

The wear shows. The five-button front is missing one button, there is a burn hole and discoloration near the left pocket and more discoloration on the right, and one pocket holds a stain from an unidentified substance. It has never been washed since Cobain wore it.

From a safety deposit box to a record

After Cobain's death in April 1994, Courtney Love gave the cardigan to Jackie Farry, who had been nanny to their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Farry kept it in a safety deposit box for about two decades. In 2015, with the blessing of Love and Frances Bean, she put it up for auction to pay for rent, insurance and cancer treatment.

In November 2015 professional race team owner Garrett Kletjian bought it for $137,500, more than 8,000 times the original price of a sweater like it. He tried it on once and took it off after less than 40 seconds.

Four years later he consigned it to a rock memorabilia auction held at a restaurant in New York. It carried an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 and sold on October 26, 2019, for $334,000, reported as the most expensive sweater ever sold at auction. In the same sale, a left-handed Fender Mustang guitar Cobain played on the In Utero tour brought $340,000. The buyer of the cardigan was not named.

From June to November 2025 the cardigan was shown at the Royal College of Music Museum in London in the exhibition 'Kurt Cobain Unplugged,' alongside the Martin D-18E guitar Cobain played that night, which had sold for more than $6 million in 2020. It was the first time the two had been displayed together in Europe.

Why a worn-out sweater matters

Unplugged in New York became the defining image of Cobain for many listeners: a quiet, haunted performance by a man in a frayed thrift-store cardigan, surrounded by funeral flowers. The album was certified 8x platinum in 2020.

The cardigan's value rests on exactly what would ruin any other sweater. Its stains, burn and missing button are the identifying marks that tie it to the man and the moment, and the decision never to wash it is what keeps it that way.

The numbers

Taping

November 18, 1993, Sony Music Studios, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan

Set

14 songs in a single take, 6 of them covers

First broadcast

December 16, 1993

Album release

November 1, 1994; debuted at No. 1 with 310,500 first-week copies

Certification

8x platinum (2020)

Award

Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance (1996), Nirvana's only Grammy

Timeline

1. 1960

   Between about 1960 and 1965, Manhattan Industries makes the cardigan.

2. Feb 20, 1967

   Kurt Cobain is born in Aberdeen, Washington.

3. Aug 18, 1992

   Frances Bean Cobain is born.

4. Nov 18, 1993

   Cobain wears the cardigan for Nirvana's MTV Unplugged taping in Manhattan.

5. Dec 16, 1993

   MTV first broadcasts the performance.

6. Apr 5, 1994

   Cobain dies in Seattle at 27; Courtney Love later gives the cardigan to nanny Jackie Farry.

7. Nov 1, 1994

   MTV Unplugged in New York is released and debuts at No. 1.

8. Nov 2015

   After about two decades in a safety deposit box, the cardigan sells at auction for $137,500 to Garrett Kletjian.

9. Oct 26, 2019

   The cardigan sells at auction in New York for $334,000, a record for a sweater.

10. 2020

    The Unplugged album is certified 8x platinum.

11. Jun 2025

    The cardigan goes on display at the Royal College of Music Museum in London with Cobain's Unplugged guitar, through November 2025.

The world in 1993

• Jan 20, 1993

  Bill Clinton is sworn in as the 42nd president.

• Feb 26, 1993

  A truck bomb explodes beneath the World Trade Center in New York.

• Feb 28, 1993

  A 51-day standoff begins at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas.

• Jun 11, 1993

  Jurassic Park opens in theaters.

• Sep 13, 1993

  Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin sign a peace accord in Washington.

• Nov 30, 1993

  The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act is signed into law.

• Dec 2, 1993

  Space Shuttle Endeavour launches to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Kurt Cobain MTV Unplugged Green Cardigan is number 93 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (94 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• A sweater like it cost $15.95 new in the early 1960s.
• It has never been washed, and one pocket still holds a stain from an unidentified substance.
• Its 2015 buyer wore it once, for less than 40 seconds.
• Cobain asked for the Unplugged stage to look 'like a funeral,' with lilies, black candles and a chandelier.
• The Fender Mustang guitar sold alongside it in 2019 brought just $6,000 more than the sweater.
• Cobain refused to play an encore after 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night.'