Hotel Chelsea’s iconic neon sign is being divided into pieces and sold letter by letter

The three-story sign of Manhattan’s saint Hotel Chelsea– the infamous meeting place for writers, artists and musicians go under the hammer. Later this month it will be sold along with many other cultural artifacts and works of art from New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chelsea’s neon beacon has been divided into pieces, auctioneer Arlan Ettinger, owner of auction house Guernsey’s, told the New York Times“James Barron. Each one and a half meter high letter of the word ‘hotel’ is offered separately. The word ‘Chelsea’, which is almost 2.5 meters wide and 1.20 meters high, is also for sale.

“That sign signaled to the world that this was a place of free thinking, creative goings-on and a rugged lifestyle,” Ettinger told the newspaper. Times. “When you said ‘the Chelsea’ you had visions of Warhol, Arthur Miller and Bob Dylan all hanging around.”

Playwright Miller and musician Dylan both lived in Chelsea in the 1960s, and Andy Warhol shot parts of his film Chelsea girls at the hotel in 1966. Other creatives who ever lived guests include painter Jackson Pollock, poet Dylan Thomas, punk rock icon Patti Smith, writer Mark Twain, guitarist Jimi Hendrix and writer Jack Kerouac.

Hotel Chelsea, built in the 1880s, is also of historical interest Victorian Gothic architectural style. Some parts of the building have been sold in recent years, such as the doors to rooms once occupied by Warhol, Kerouac, Pollock, Dylan and singer Janis Joplin. In addition to the sign, the upcoming Guernsey sale will also feature several other items from the hotel, including stained glass windows, more doors and an old sign for the Chelseas. El Quijote restaurant.

Interested New Yorkers can attend a preview exhibition of the items at Hotel Chelsea on September 22 and 23. An online auction will take place on September 25.

The collection also includes pieces of Manhattan memorabilia not directly related to the hotel. These items include Madonna’s drum kit and guitars, portraits of Warhol and Keith Haring created by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and original tape recordings from Dylan’s first album.

The Basquiat portraits are expected to fetch $1.5 million to $2 million each, while the Dylan tapes could sell for up to $500,000, reports Artnet‘s Vittoria Gasoline. As for the sign, each neon “hotel” letter could fetch $5,000 to $10,000, and the “Chelsea” segment could sell for $50,000 to $100,000. (Two copies of each piece are available as the board is double-sided.)

Chelsea’s neon sign was installed in 1949. At the time, neon was “intensely popular with business owners,” Thomas Rinaldi, author of the book. New York Neontold CNN‘s Chris Kokenes in 2012. In subsequent decades, however, “many small business owners have opted for cheaper forms of outdoor advertising.”

According to New York Neonthe Chelsea once had other neon signs directing customers to the shops and restaurants on the ground floor. They disappeared years ago, but the hotel’s main sign remained: Rinaldi writes“the neon tubes are as woven into the fabric of the city’s identity as any brick and mortar landmark.”