Jim Irsay was an interesting person to own an NFL team. Most owners seem somewhat stodgy and business-oriented. Irsay, who owned the Indianapolis Colts from 1997 until he died in 2025, seemed to be one of us. He was open about his inner demons and his addictions.
That almost made a person want to root for Indy, simply because Irsay didn't see himself as above the rest of us, as many other team owners appear to do. They are rich and run well-known sports franchises, but that doesn't make them better people. Irsay knew that.
The late Colts owner also had a fascination with pop culture and music, so much so that he purchased a lot of memorabilia related to both. His large collection will now be put up for auction in 2026, and the entire set is worth as much as $1 billion. The assumption is that it will be pieced out. Auction house Christie's will begin auctioning off items next year.
Late Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay massive music collection up for auction in 2026
The collection includes many iconic pop items, such as handwritten documents by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as the championship belt of Muhammad Ali from his Rumble in the Jungle match against George Foreman.
But for our purposes here, we really care about the music items, and then are some legendary ones. The list includes Bob Dylan’s Strat that he used during his explosive Newport Folk Festival performance, Kurt Cobain’s Fender Mustang, which appeared in the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Eric Clapton’s "The Fool" SG, among many other instruments from icons.
If you want something Miles Davis played, for instance, that will be up for auction. So will guitars played by John Lennon, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, and Jimi Hendrix. That is just the beginning of the vast collection.
One positive part of the auction is that part of the proceeds will go to some of the various charities that Jim Irsay championed during his lifetime. The Colts owner was heavily involved in helping the mental health of others, for instance, even while he struggled with his own.