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Jerry Garcia's Guitar Truckin' to Auction, Could Fetch $1M


FILE - Guernsey's auctioneer Joanne Grant conducts bidding on guitars previously owned by the late Jerry Garcia during an auction, May 8, 2002, at Studio 54 in New York. The guitar named "Wolf," left, sold for over $700,000.
FILE - Guernsey's auctioneer Joanne Grant conducts bidding on guitars previously owned by the late Jerry Garcia during an auction, May 8, 2002, at Studio 54 in New York. The guitar named "Wolf," left, sold for over $700,000.

Jerry Garcia's custom-made guitar is truckin' to auction in New York City.

The Grateful Dead frontman's guitar is called Wolf. Guernsey's auction house says it'll be offered May 31 at Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley, restaurant and venue for music shows.

The proceeds will go to the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center .

The guitar is being sold by devoted Deadhead Daniel Pritzker. The philanthropist, musician and film director bought it in 2002 at Guernsey's for $790,000. It could exceed $1 million this time.

The auctioneer says Wolf first appeared in a 1973 New York performance the Grateful Dead gave for the Hells Angels.

Jerry Garcia, leader of the legendary group,The Grateful Dead, works with his guitar, May 8, 1979.
Jerry Garcia, leader of the legendary group,The Grateful Dead, works with his guitar, May 8, 1979.


Garcia played Wolf everywhere from San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom to New York's Palladium and Egypt's Great Pyramids.

The 1977 film "The Grateful Dead Movie'' was directed by Garcia and features extensive Wolf footage.

Garcia died in 1995.

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