BEVERLY HILLS— An iconic once believed to be lost Prince “Blue Angel” Cloud 2 guitar has been sold at an auction for over $500,000, as confirmed by Julien’s Auctions in a news release.

The custom made guitar for Prince’s Purple Rain tour was sold by Julien’s Auctions in their Music Icons event for $563,000 on Friday, June 19. Described as “the most significant Prince guitar that’ll ever come up for auction,” the guitar was believed to be lost until John Woodman, who performs conservation work on Prince guitars, contacted the auction house.

After consulting by Woodman, CT scans by Westside Medical Imaging, and meeting with former employees of Knut Koupee, who built the original cloud guitar, it was confirmed to be Prince’s “Blue Angel.” The discovery rose the appraisal price from $100,000-$200,000 to $400,000-$600,000.

“Not only is this a Prince guitar but of all his guitars that he played this is one of the greatest and most important Prince guitars that will ever come up for auction,” said Darren Julian, the CEO of Julien’s Auctions.

The guitar has a long performance history, beginning with Prince’s Purple Rain Tour from 1984 to 1985, “Blue Angel” was featured in four tours over the next seven years and Saturday Night Live’s “15th Anniversary Special. Originally painted white, the guitar now bares an electric blue finish but has seen shades of peach, light blue, and yellow throughout is tenure.”

The guitar now has a crack running from between the 6th and 7th fret to the head of the guitar, and no longer has strings attached as well. It is accompanied by an oversized Calzone purple guitar road case.

Laura Wooley, a consulting special, told Rolling Stone magazine, “Prince came into the collective consciousness in the Eighties and this was one of his primary performance guitars at that time. So it’s got a lot of mojo.”

Julien’s Auctions previously set a world record for the highest price of a Prince guitar with a green Cloud guitar in 2019 for $700,000.

On Saturday, June 20, Julien’s Auctions sold Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged acoustic guitar for over $6 million, breaking the previous record for the highest sale of a guitar.