Lucrative Queen album cover auction derailed after artist accidentally bins artwork

Queen’s iconic cover is…in the bin (Picture: Keystone/Getty Images)

If you were hoping to get your hands on the art that inspired Queen’s album cover for A Night At The Opera, we have some very sorry news for you.

It may be in landfill.

A plan to auction off the original artwork created for a pair of classic Queen albums was thwarted when one was accidentally thrown in the bin by the artist.

Art director and designer David Costa decided to auction the original artworks for Queen’s 1975 vinyl album A Night At The Opera as well as 1976’s A Day At The Races.

That’s all well and good, however only A Day At The Races can be sold now because Costa believes he threw away the cover for the earlier record while clearing his studio.

Costa said: ‘An unwitting triumph of tidiness over posterity, I’ve now come to the inevitable conclusion that A Night At The Opera became a casualty of my over-enthusiastic effort to begin clearing through 50 years of personal ephemera.

‘A shame, but in the grand scheme of things, not a global catastrophe.’

Auctioneer Luke Hobbs with David Costa’s original artwork for the 1976 Queen album A Day At The Races (Picture: PA)

The pen-and-ink drawing to guide the airbrush design for the front cover – not in the bin (Picture: PA)

Let that be a lesson to you all: it doesn’t pay to be tidy.

Going under the hammer in March is the original airbrush-painted front cover of A Day At The Races, a panel from the rear cover and a pen-and-ink drawing used in the production process, based on an original sketch by the band’s singer Freddie Mercury.

Artist Costa is the artist behind iconic rock band art (Picture: PA)

Set to go for a pretty penny, too, Wiltshire-based specialist music auction house Gardiner Houlgate has valued the artwork at between £5,000 and £10,000.

In 2021, the original artwork for another Queen album, 1977’s News Of The World sold in New York for 62,575 US dollars (£46,000).

Auctioneer Luke Hobbs said of the art, which is an extravagant piece featuring crowned lions and an eagle: ‘Original album artwork rarely comes up for auction.

‘Apart from the sale of one other Queen album and an album by the American rock group Boston, we’ve very little to go on.

‘What makes this all the more important is that this album is an acknowledged classic.

‘Although it’s 46 years old, the artwork has been carefully stored and is in amazing condition.

‘Queen are so popular this could sell to someone from anywhere in the world, particularly America where there are lots of Queen collectors.’

A Day At The Races was released in 1976 and went platinum, reaching number one in the UK album chart as well as in Japan and the Netherlands. It contained the hit singles Somebody To Love and Tie Your Mother Down.

A Night At The Opera, released in 1975, had iconic tracks Bohemian Rhapsody, You’re My Best Friend and Love Of My Life. The cover was quite similar to that of A Day At The Races, with similarly-crowned lions.

From 1973 to 2010, Costa and his Wherefore Art? Studio were responsible for album artworks for many leading musicians, including Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Genesis, George Harrison and The Travelling Wilburys, and for many notable books including The Beatles Anthology and The Rolling Stones’ A Life On The Road.

He is now retired and lives in the south west of England, evidently in a clutter-free house.

Costa said: ‘My first design experience was sticking down typesetting for Elton John’s Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player in 1972.

More: Queen (band)

‘My last, pretty much, was putting together the book for Elton’s Million Dollar Piano residency in Vegas in 2012. Forty years, and that circularity, seemed like a good moment to stop.

‘It’s taken me 10 years since to decide to let some ephemera and memorabilia move on to better homes.’

The auction will take place at Gardiner Houlgate in Corsham on March 9.

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