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00:00 From personal photographs to a matching cape and crown, everything must go.
00:05 Sotheby's have even transformed their London gallery to resemble Freddie Mercury's former
00:10 home as the auction house prepares for the sale in September.
00:15 We literally opened suitcases and boxes and found things and tried to imagine, 'OK, where
00:22 is this placed in the process of Freddie?
00:25 This belt, it goes with which pair of trousers?'
00:29 The items have all been cared for since his death in 1991 in his West London home by his
00:34 former partner and long-time friend Mary Austin.
00:38 Freddie loved auctions.
00:39 He was not interested in having a museum of his life, but he loved auctions.
00:44 He bought here, he was well known here, and so she felt this would be the great... this
00:50 is what he would have loved.
00:51 He would have loved all this.
00:53 Lyric sheets, clothes and a jukebox are all up for sale.
00:58 While the auction house promises that some of the more accessible items will have a starting
01:02 price of ÂŁ40.
01:06 But the centrepiece of the auction is without doubt the baby grand piano on which the Queen
01:11 frontman composed many of the band's greatest hits and which is expected to fetch ÂŁ3 million.
01:18 The piano is like the nuclear reactor within the collection, isn't it?
01:22 So treating it with respect has been absolutely at the forefront of our minds.
01:28 Making sure that it's visible and that people can come in and see it and see the tool of
01:33 his trade, his easel and his palette.
01:37 That's mega, yeah.
01:40 In all, up to 40,000 items are set to be auctioned off and a portion of the proceeds will be
01:45 donated to the trust set up by Freddie Mercury's fellow band members and manager, which supports
01:51 HIV initiatives across the world.
01:53 (laughing)