That was one hell of a garage sale.
After deciding it was time to clean house, Elton John raked in $2.3 million on Tuesday by auctioning off everything from his leopard-skin furniture to Elizabethan-era paintings that had cluttered his London residence.
The Rocket Man, a notorious spendthrift, put his stash up for a one-day sale at Sotheby's auction house. Included in the collection were lavish Art Deco beds, a bedroom suite designed by Royal furniture maker David Linley, expensive jewelry, tableware and artworks.
"This wasn't a sale of memorabilia, but Elton's taste proved to have an extraordinarily wide appeal with enthusiastic buyers from around the world," Marcus Linell, a Sotheby's auction specialist, told Reuters.
This thing was for serious bidders only.
The highest-selling item was Maxwell Armfield's oil painting Madison Square Park, that was snapped up by a London dealer for around $112,000, while a candelabra scored the lowest bid at $160.
Elton's reason for the sale was simple: He said he wanted to redecorate after growing tired of the tchotchkes that reminded him of the early '90s, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was battling depression and drug and alcohol addiction.
"He bought everything in a six-month spree and told his decorator to make something of it," a Sotheby's spokeswoman told Reuters.
John's collection was so large in fact that Sotheby's had to design a special 180-item catalog for auction buyers.
Not that Elton's planning to tuck away the money. Now that he's emptied the place, the 56-year-old "Sad Songs" singer is planning to spend millions of dollars on a new decor, featuring his latest obsession--contemporary art.
The flamboyant popster is no stranger to rummage sales, having bid goodbye to his entire wardrobe--including those famed feather boas, sequined spectacles, and platform shoes--in a similar auction in 1988.
In June, Sotheby's also helped him unload 11 years worth of furniture and art accumulated by John from his Windsor estate.
When he's not working with his interior decorator, John has been out on the road touring. He was recently rumored to be in talks with Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace to commit to an exclusive three-year contract at the Colosseum, its new state-of-the-art stadium, but no deal has been finalized.
He and longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin also recently signed on to write the music and lyrics to The Vampire Lestat, a musical based on the bestselling Anne Rice novels.