A family row has broken out over some of George Michael’s possessions going to auction, including the guitar he used in the iconic ‘Faith’ music video.
- READ MORE: George Michael Obituary: 1963-2016
The collection, also included gold and platinum records, tour programmes and letters, all came from the collection of the singer’s personal assistant Siobhan Bailey, who began working with Michael in 1984 and remained his PA for 20 years.
Bailey died in 2014 without a will, and the memorabilia then passed onto her estranged husband, Ian Belcher, who auctioned them off at Sworders earlier today (Thursday October 29).
The move, however, was criticised by Siobhan’s brother Gerard, who tried to put a stop to the auction and claimed that his late sister would be “horrified at the prospect of it being held in her name”.
He argued that the items were all her “her personal, cherished possessions” and speculated that if she had not died unexpectedly in 2014, she would have made a will leaving the items to her nieces and nephews – not her husband.
Bailey was in the process of divorcing Belcher at the time of her passing, but as they were still legally married, he was considered her next of kin and inherited the memorabilia.
Belcher put the items for auction at Sworders under Bailey’s name, and BBC News reports that the move prompted Gerard to write a letter to the auction house, calling it a “breach of her privacy”, a “misuse of my sister’s name” and “egregiously shameful”. He also pushed for her name to be removed from the auction and for Belcher’s to be put there in its place.
Gerard then claimed that the auction was an attempt for Belcher to “cash in”, and that his sister would have wanted the items to “have remained with her family and we would never have sold”.
Sworders auctioneer Guy Schooling, told Guitarist that Belcher wanted to sell the items because they “couldn’t stay in the garage forever” and “would have deteriorated”.
The most sought after item in the auction was the guitar that Michael famously played in the 1987 ‘Faith’ music video, which he later gifted to Bailey. It was predicted to sell for between £60,000 and £120,000, but surpassed that when it went under the hammer this morning, selling for £180,000.
Other items included a gold disc of Wham!’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, which sold for £4,500, an award presented to Michael from Malaga City Council (£1,300), a signed copy of Queen’s ‘Five Live’ EP owned by Michael (£7,000) and more.
Michael died on Christmas Day 2016 at the age of 53. Earlier this year, his former Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley spoke to NME about the “enduring” nature of Michael’s music, saying: “It speaks to core human emotions.”
“I think it’s fundamentally about how we feel, and therefore that is timeless. Whether it’s the type of vibrant vitality that WHAM! represented, or the rather more deep, soulful [songwriting] and the questions that he asked as a more mature songwriter,” he told us at the 2026 Ivor Novellos, where he accepted the Academy Fellowship on Michael’s behalf.
Since then, Michael‘s former manager has expressed hopes to release a previously-unfinished duet that the late pop icon recorded with Elton John, and Sombr, RAYE, Adam Lambert and Teddy Swims have come together to pay tribute to him at the 2026 MTV VMAs.
Footage of Michael’s iconic 1988 ‘Faith’ tour is set to hit cinemas next week (November 6). George Michael: The Faith Tour is made from long-lost footage from his show in Paris that year, which resurfaced and was remastered by Andy Morahan and David Austin. It drops alongside an 18-track live album of previously unheard performances.
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