A secretly recorded Velvet Underground acetate that Andy Warhol exchanged for an original painting has come up for auction with Shuga Records.
 Just two originals are known, with the other owned by drummer Moe Tucker |
Recorded in April 1966, the record features alternate versions of the band's debut Velvet Underground and Nico album - widely considered one of the most influential of all-time. It is due to sell in July on eBay.
The record was last bought in an eBay sale for $25,200 and is one of only two known copies, the other owned by the Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker. A limited edition pressing of 5,000 was released on Record Store Day in 2012, supposedly from Tucker's original.
"I bought it for $25,200, which, in my mind, was extremely undervalued for what the record was. I'm a big Velvet Underground fan, but to be honest, I've never been a big fan of this album. But the significance of the record for music is unmistakable," the current owner told Rolling Stone magazine.
"It's obviously a piece of musical history, but I wouldn't have purchased it then if I didn't see its potential as a financial investment."
While the Lou Reed-fronted band were at Scepter Studios in April 1966, engineer Norman Dolph secretly made a test pressing of the songs they had recorded so far and swapped it with Andy Warhol, the band's manager at the time.
Warhol submitted it to Columbia Records, who bluntly told him that they would be out of their minds to publish the psychedelic sounds of the Velvet Underground. They were joined in their rejection by Atlantic and Elektra, with Verve Records eventually agreeing to distribute it.
The acetate was then discovered in a New York flea market in 2002, where it was bought for just 75 cents. It initially auctioned for $155,401 on eBay in 2006, but the winning bidder failed to pay, and it was then sold to the current owner.
For fans whose budgets fall short of the $25,000+ estimate, the record can be heard as the fourth disc of the 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition box set.
Track listing and sequence:
1. European Son
2. Black Angel's Death Song
3. All Tomorrow's Parties
4. I'll Be Your Mirror
5. Heroin
6. Femme Fatale
7. Venus In Furs
8. I'm Waiting For The Man
9. Run Run Run
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