DROP THE HAMMER

VANDOR JANIS JOPLIN MONEY BOX

hen it comes to icons of entertainment, they don’t come much bolder than gravel-voiced 1960s songstress, Janis Joplin. Known for her wild on-stage performances — and equally wild off-stage lifestyle — the queen of rock thrilled audiences the world over with her various touring bands. When it came to cars, her presence was just as striking as it was when she was strutting her stuff in auditoriums. “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,” she famously sang in what was to be her last recording before. In the years that followed, the car was stolen, recovered and eventually restored with a lick of OEM Dolphin Grey. Fast-forward to the early 1990s, and Joplin’s surviving siblings commissioned the restoration of Richards’ distinctive art, before selling the car through RM Sotheby’s in 2015. The hammer fell at $1.7m.