From this weekend in Budapest, flamboyant frontman Freddie Mercury’s possessions will be brought back to life in a year long exhibition, featuring 1,000 items.
When Freddie Mercury’s iconic stage outfits and personal possessions were sold at auction three years ago for £40 million, Queen fans feared they would never see them again. From this weekend, the flamboyant frontman’s world will be brought back to life in a year long exhibition, featuring 1,000 items – from stage costumes to song lyrics – and even his precious teasmade.
The Bohemian Rhapsody star’s personal assistant Peter Freestone joined forces with Queen superfan, Tomas Hykel, a Czech businessman, and spent 18 months hunting down items that went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London, in 2023. Peter, 71, says: “For me the exhibit will bring the Freddie I knew under one roof for a year.”
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Freddie’s possessions were put up for sale by his beneficiary and former fiancee Mary Austin, who decided to sell his entire estate and the contents of his former home, Garden Lodge, in Kensington, west London. Meeting Freddie in 1969, despite their romance ending in the mid-1970s, when he came out to her as gay, he and Mary remained soulmates.
Explaining her thinking behind the Sotheby’s sale, she said: “For many years now, I have had the joy and privilege of living surrounded by all the wonderful things that Freddie sought out and so loved. But with the passing of time the moment has arrived for me to take what was the difficult decision to close this very special chapter of my life.”
Freddie’s baby grand Yamaha piano alone sold for a staggering £1.7m, while the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody went for £1.3 million. Now many of the items have been bought back, or lent to Peter and Tomas, for The World of Freddie exhibition at The House of Music Hungary in Budapest.
It marks the 40th anniversary of Queen playing in the city in July 1986 – one of the first major international acts to play behind the iron curtain. The plan is for it to tour globally, once the exhibition closes in April, as a lasting tribute to Freddie, who would have turned 80 in September.
Peter, Freddie’s friend and PA before his death from AIDs, aged 45, in 1991, says: “We hope fans will love the exhibition. We have over 1,000 items on display which we have managed to get either by buying them back, via fan online resale sites, or they’ve been loaned to us by collectors. Now we finally have a lasting exhibition to celebrate Freddie’s life and legacy for everyone to enjoy.”
Standout items include Freddie’s famous white Adidas high top sneakers, a jacket from the Bohemian Rhapsody video, the star’s leotard from the I Want To Break Free video and the pale blue suit worn for his last public appearance at the 1990 Brit Awards, when Queen were honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Music.
Freddie’s tuxedo from the 1991 Queen video I’m Going Slightly Mad and the famous Betty Boop cartoon T-shirt he wore to play Budapest also feature. Hobbies, from Freddie’s love of collecting Japanese art to his penchant for Scrabble are also represented in the exhibition, which promises to involve all the senses.
Peter, who met Freddie during a night at the Royal Ballet in London in 1979, explains “I thought ‘why not involve the senses?’ You are able to get close to Freddie’s clothes. Also in different rooms there will be a spray of different colognes that he used to wear. When I first met Freddie, he was using Aramis aftershave. I got him into Karl Lagerfeld when we were in New York. He used to have in every bathroom the Givenchy perfume used by Audrey Hepburn. He never wore it, but he would happily spray it around after a show to smell it in every room.
“We are planning to have dotted around the exhibition bowls of Quality Street sweets, as he loved the hazelnut ones in the purple wrappings, so you will be able to taste what Freddie loved. I guess we will have to put them near the exit as we don’t want chocolate marks on the clothes!”
Peter, who lived with Freddie at his neo-Georgian mansion and cared for him until he died, says: “It has brought back so many memories, seeing everything on display. I have donated some items Freddie gave me to the exhibition – such as a Cartier cheque book holder, Lalique glass pieces of a toad and bird and a vase from Japan.”
Often given a blank cheque book by Freddie to buy items on his behalf at auction, Peter says this was typical of the Don’t Stop Me Now singer’s generosity. He says: “One day he went out and bought his own colognes and two hours later he came back with his bodyguard Terry loaded with carrier bags from Harrods. He then gave the cleaning ladies all a bottle each. He was always thinking who he could give things to. Freddie’s aim in life was to make other people happy.”
One precious gift he could not present himself was for his friend Elton John. Peter recalls: “Two or three months before he died he went to Phillips auctions and bought a Henry Scott Tuke painting for Elton John. We delivered it to Elton after Freddie died. He knew he would not be there to give it to him.”
The Budapest venue was chosen to launch the exhibition as London’s Victoria & Albert Museum could not host it for another four years. Peter says: “We did want to show it at the V&A. They were very interested and said ‘how about 2030?’ because they are so busy.”
Recalling the Sotheby’s auction, Peter continues: “I was amazed by some of the prices that were paid by fans. There was this Tiffany silver moustache comb that sold for £147,000. I originally bought it for a dinner party Freddie was having at home. For the four course dinner everyone had a little blue box on their plate from Tiffany. It was not even planned for Freddie and that is what he got. It was like something you got in a Christmas cracker and I have to say, Freddie never used that comb and it only cost £75!”
It was Freddie’s kindness, rather than his extravagance, that Peter remembers most. He says: “Freddie was the kindest man ever. When Freddie moved into Garden Lodge, I moved in as his PA. I always remember he took us aside and said ‘look, you are sleeping in this house. This is your home. You have to treat it as your home’”.
For the exhibition’s co-creator, Tomas, as a Queen superfan, it’s a dream come true. He says: “I wanted to recreate Freddie’s world and wanted to buy as much as possible. I heard the fans when they said they wanted a permanent exhibition or a museum when the items went up for sale at Sotheby’s. Now we have one.”
*The World of Freddie is now open at The House of Music Hungary, Budapest until April 27, 2027. For tickets visit www.worldoffreddie.com
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