This guy dutifully opened the case. I can still smell it. It was this otherworldly object, like something out of Raiders of the Lost Ark": Johnny Marr on the guitars he's loved and is about to lose at auction - and the one that started it all

Johnny Marr says his upcoming Christie's auction in London is a “wrench” but also a deliberate reset. On 17 September, the 62-year-old will sell his four-decade guitar collection at Christie's of London, with proceeds linked to charity. Marr will be auctioning after major names including David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, and he has framed the sale as “boom or bust” rather than nostalgia. He points to a cataloging project, Marr’s Guitars book, and multiple events in New York, Manchester, London and Dublin as moments that made the instruments feel like “living things” again—before they were caged in cases. Marr also discusses his shift toward recording new solo work, The Age Of Everything, using a Jaguar.