The Jim Irsay Collection Comes To New York City

(EDITOR’S NOTE: To listen to the Jim Irsay interview, click on the following link:  Ep 112: Colts Owner Jim Irsay Joins To Talk “The Jim Irsay Collection” | Spreaker)

Jim Irsay is the owner of the Indianapolis Colts … but you knew that. 

Jim Irsay is also the owner of one of the most extensive, diverse and intriguing historical collections in this country, ranging from expensive guitars to pop culture to American literature to the Declaration of Independence.

That you may not know.

Well, now you do. In fact, you can find a list of his culturally significant artifacts on the internet at The Jim Irsay Collection, or, better yet, you can view it in person. It’s in the midst of a cross-country tour that takes it this Friday, June 3, to New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom where it is open to the public and free.

You heard me. FREE.

“I was searching for a public/private partnership, like you build stadiums,” Irsay said on this week’s “Eye Test for Two” podcast. “Except, in this case, I was doing nothing except giving everything and getting nothing. So it was like a different move than when you build a stadium. 

“This was like: I’m putting all the money in, (and) I don’t want anything. If we build a museum I don’t want any of the proceeds. I just want it to be done the right way, and let’s do a public/private partnership. Tell me what land you have; what museum. Let’s do this for your city.”

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So he did. The tour started last year in Nashville and since has gone on to Washington, D.C., Austin, Tex. and Los Angeles – with stops in Chicago and Indianapolis planned next. 

Now, the question: What’s the Jim Irsay collection all about? Glad you asked. First of all, it features what Guitar.com calls “the greatest guitar collection on earth.” There’s David Gilmour’s Black Strat that Irsay acquired for $3.9 million … Jerry Garcia’s Tiger for $957,500 … the Stratocaster that Bob Dylan played at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival for $965,000 … the Gibson SG that George Harrison used on the Revolver album for $567,000.

I think you get the idea.

But the collection doesn’t stop there. It’s where it begins. There’s Jack Kerouac’s typewritten manuscript for On the Road … Hunter S Thompson’s Red Shark convertible … the shoes Mohammed Ali wore for the Thrilla in Manila … Abraham Lincoln’s walking cane … an original Apple II manual signed in 1980 by Steve Jobs … a copy of the Declaration of Independence … and the working manuscript for The Big Book, a.k.a., Alcoholics Anonymous, bought at a 2018 auction for $2.8 million.

“The biggest piece was On the Road,” said Irsay. “On the Road is 120 feet. And I had a case for it in Paris that was 120 feet. There’s nothing quite like that. There are manuscripts, but not manuscripts that are 120 feet.”

A collector since buying boxes of baseball cards as a boy, Irsay decided he had to have it. So he attended an auction at Christie’s in New York City, with no intention of leaving without it. He said he’d never attended an auction before, but that didn’t matter. He knew what he had to do at this one.

“I went into it like the Chicago Bears’ defense of ‘85: Blitz every play with your paddle,” he said.

He wound up buying the manuscript and now keeps it carefully preserved as part of his collection.

“The scroll was really the biggest thing,” Irsay said of his collection, “and it just rolled out and rolled out and rolled out. I can’t imagine … God willing, if I live long enough for the next 25 or 30 years, whatever I have left … but I can’t imagine what it’s going to be.

“It’s something where it’s been put tougher artistically, and  if someone from Saudi Arabia came and said, ‘I’ll give you a billion dollars for the whole collection,’ (I’d say), ‘It’s not for sale.’ ”

It is, however, available for public viewing … again.