Johnny Cash auction raises $1.2m

Cash's acoustic guitar sold for more than six times its estimated price

Items belonging to the late Johnny Cash fetched $1.24m (£692,000) on the first day at auction in New York on Tuesday.

Collectors paid up to 15 times the expected prices for the late country music star's possessions.

A custom-made abalone-inlaid acoustic guitar - expected to reach $20,000 (£11,650) - sold for $131,200 (£73,200).

Sotheby's had estimated the three-day sale would raise about $1.5m, but the final total is likely to exceed that. Cash died in September 2003.

The auction's 769 lots trace the five decades of his career and his life with June Carter Cash, who died last May.

Sharon Graves, of Nebraska, who bought the guitar, already had an extensive collection of Cash memorabilia thanks to her late husband Terry, a lifelong fan.

Cash died in September 2003 after complications from diabetes

She said: "It'll be the centrepiece of the collection. I bought it in Terry's memory."

The guitar was made in the 1960s by Billy Grammer and labelled "Custom Made For Johnny Cash".

Other items to fetch more than the expected prices were a photo of Elvis Presley inscribed "June, I love you", which sold for $18,000 (£10,000) and pair of silver Tiffany centrepieces which made £42,000 (£23,300).

Items from Folsom Prison including a striped prisoner's jacket, presented to Cash by a warden after he performed there, sold for $6,000 (£3,350).

Recognisable

Leila Dunbar, head of Sotheby's collectables department, said: "We always expected this auction to be a success, simply because of the stature Johnny and June have attained.

"Here you have the most recognisable union in country music."

Still up for sale at the auction, which ends on Thursday, are several of Cash's trademark black jackets, a 1987 Rolls Royce and the grand piano featured in Cash's last video, Hurt.

The sale's proceeds will go to the Cash estate.