Owner of Jerry Garcia’s guitar raises over $3m for anti-hate group at auction
New York — A guitar of Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia on Wednesday raised more than $3m at an auction to support a leading civil rights group. Known as Wolf, the custom-made electric guitar was a constant concert companion of Garcia until the jam rock icon died in 1995. The original buyer put the guitar back on auction to raise money for the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Alabama-based group which wages legal battles against white supremacists and other hate groups. At a charity concert in New York, Brian Halligan, the CEO and co-founder of marketing firm HubSpot, bought Wolf for $1.932m including the premium. An anonymous charity matched his pre-premium $1.6m bid, bringing the total donation for the Southern Poverty Law Center to $3.2m. Halligan is one of the legions of "Deadhead" fans, who for years journeyed from concert to concert to experience the band amid a welcoming community of fellow travellers. The entrepreneur — who co-wrote a book on the Grateful Dead’s lessons for...
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