Marianne Faithfull on auctioning her treasures: ‘I enjoy nice things, but they don’t define me’

Exclusive: Musician and actor remembers her time on stage and screen over a career spanning six decades, as she puts a number of personal items up for auction

Marianne Faithfull wearing her Yves Saint Laurent Tuxedo (Sotheby’s)

A signed drawing by Anita Pallenberg; handwritten lyrics; the script for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette; a beautifully tailored Yves Saint Laurent jacket... these are just some of the treasures being auctioned by legendary singer-songwriter Marianne Faithfull at Sotheby’s in London this week.

The British rock singer, artist and actor has listed artefacts collected over a career spanning 60 years, including handwritten lyrics, film scripts, artwork, designer clothing and an acoustic guitar.

Faithfull, 77, rose to fame in the Swinging Sixties as one of the leading female artists of the British Invasion, releasing hit songs such as “Come and Stay With Me” and “As Tears Go By”. She had a highly publicised relationship with Mick Jagger from 1966 to 1970, which often threatened to overshadow her own talents.

As an actor, she made her theatre debut in a 1967 stage adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and has since starred in films including Sofia Coppola’s 2006 biopic Marie Antoinette, opposite Kirsten Dunst, and in Sam Garbarski’s 2007 tragicomedy Irina Palm.

“I’ve always enjoyed a life of the mind,” Faithfull told The Independent, explaining why she chose to auction some of her treasures. “My home is in my head, I carry it with me. I am my home.

“I enjoy nice things and always have, but they don’t define me, and these days I get more joy from the garden where I’m living than anything else. It’s time for them to find new owners that I hope will cherish them as much as I once did.”

Below, Faithfull explains the stories behind the items being auctioned this week at Sotheby’s.

Lot 11: Film Scripts

The Black Rider

Robert Wilson revealed a completely new theatrical language for me: it’s not naturalistic, it’s unnaturalistic, all about space and how you use it. It was like being in the middle of a whirlwind , but you’re the still figure at the centre of it all. All your movements were mapped out in time to the music, it was a lot to learn!

Marie Antoinette

Sofia [Coppola] asked if I wanted to play an Austrian queen and I thought it was a great idea. I was very gratified because my mother, Eva [von Sacher-Masoch], was an Austrian aristocrat. Looking back I really think Sofia took the period film in a new direction. This was a film by an auteur with a point of view, not a documentary and it really worked: Its the kind of historical fantasy that’s very popular now: I don’t think Bridgerton could have existed without it.

Marianne Faithfull (right) with Kirsten Dunst in ‘Marie Antoinette’ (Columbia Pictures)

Irina Palm

Irina Palm was my first starring role in a film since Girl On A Motorcycle (1968). It was my idea to die my hair brown, I felt strongly that my character couldn’t be blonde. I love it so much because not for one minute do you see my character as “Marianne Faithfull”, that would have made the whole thing so tacky… dishing out hand-jobs in Soho looking like myself! I wanted her to be matronly, simply dressed so that it seems so unexpected what she’s doing when she goes home to her nice middle class neighbourhood.

Lot 11: Lyrics

An extensive personal collection of handwritten lyrics, setlists, photographs from the career of Marianne Faithfull (Sotheby’s)

I find it hard to talk about my work and explain it. It is what it is. Ultimately it’s the listener who decides what it means.

Lot 14: Acoustic guitar

Marianne Faithfull’s Marin D-X1AE electro-acoustic guitar, believed to have been used in the recording of the albums ‘Give My Love to London’ and ‘Negative Capability' (Sotheby’s)

Even though I never learnt to play properly I’ve always kept an acoustic guitar. When I was younger in the Sixties I always toured with one, it was just me and Jon Mark. I started out in the folk scene and I wanted to stick with what I knew, I think a band would have been too overwhelming back then.

Later, of course, I loved having a band but I’ve always carried on doing little acoustic shows and I think they have been some of the best – just me and Barry Reynolds or Marc Ribot or Bill Frissell. When I’m writing new songs or rehearsing for a tour it’s always been important to have an acoustic guitar.

An original artwork by Anita Pallenberg, signed and dedicated to Marianne Faithfull (Sotheby’s)

I don’t want who she really was to be forgotten and I think the documentary (Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg) is going to do that. I hope so. Anita was really well educated. She spoke five languages, and was a really good artist in her own right. She could have done a lot of other things – to be Keith Richard’s “moll” was not necessarily her destiny at all.

Lots 10 & 13: Designer pieces

Marianne Faithfull wearing her Yves Saint Laurent Tuxedo (Sotheby’s)

Clothes have always been very important. To feel exquisitely dressed allowed me to become “Marianne Faithfull”, to feel ready. I’ve known so many of the great designers and they were all necessary in helping me create the “fabulous beast” – my public persona.

Lot 3: Photograph by John Dunbar

This was taken in Paris, on my honeymoon. I was pregnant with Nicholas. It was May but I must have been cold as I think I’m wearing John’s coat round my shoulders – so chivalrous!

Items included in Lot 4

Package tour programme

This was my first package tour. They were brutal, they just seemed relentless and it wasn’t just the shows, it was all the other things they got you to do like interviews and radio and meeting local dignitaries. I remember feeling very lonely at first, it was all so different to anything I had experienced but I became friends with The Hollies. I still know Graham Nash and saw him at his gig at the Theatre Royal last year.

Lot 1: Two Books – Marianne Faithfull: Fabulous Beast and Blinds & Shutters

On Gered Mankowitz: Dear Gered is one of my favourite photographers and oldest friends. He was one of the first people to photograph me. We were about the same age, both so young and starting out together. We got along very well and he ended up doing photos for most of my Decca albums. I still think some of these early portraits are among the best taken of me. I love his title as well – “Fabulous Beast” - it represents the other me, my persona in the press; the public’s idea of me.

Gered Mankowitz’s photo of Marianne Faithfull (Gered Mankowitz)

On Michael Cooper: I knew Michael Cooper very well and he took some great pictures of me. My favourites are the ones of me with Mick when we fled to Braziers [her father’s commune in Oxfordshire] after [the 1967 drugs bust at Keith Richards’ country house], Redlands and Mick’s time in jail. The press couldn’t get to us there and we had a wonderful time, we look like two people on their honeymoon!

Marianne with Mick Jagger and photographer Michael Cooper’s son, Adam, in Braziers (Michael Cooper)

Michael had a beautiful face with wonderful big saucer eyes that shone with life and I remember he was very stylish and well dressed. He always carried a camera, was always taking pictures. He was full of ideas and unlike so many sixties’ projects he actually did them! Everyone remembers the covers he did for Sgt Pepper and Their Satanic Majesties, and he did the cover of my album Loveinamist too.

‘Michael Cooper always carried a camera, was always taking pictures’ (Michael Cooper)

Lot 5: Bob Dylan – Mr Tambourine Man Poster by Martin Sharp

A psychedelic poster for Bob Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ by Martin Sharp, gifted to Marianne Faithfull by the designer (Sotheby’s)

This is how I remember him: Phil Spector shades and an aureole of hair! Back then Dylan was the hippest person on earth. In my book I called him “the jangling Rimbaud of rock” and I still think that fits. We worshipped him and a part of me still does. I first met him at the Savoy, I was so shy I found a corner and tried to disappear but there I was in the holy of holies!

You can glimpse me there in Don’t Look Back (DA Pennebaker’s film of Dylan’s English Tour). I’ve sung Bob’s songs all my life, I did “Blowin In The Wind” on my first tour and “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” on my last.

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Also included in Sotheby’s inaugural pop culture auction are items such as the guitars used by Noel Gallagher while recording Oasis’s debut album, Definitely Maybe, and a Steinway grand piano played by Amy Winehouse, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga and Paul Weller at Abbey Road studios.

Sotheby’s popular culture exhibition is open to the public from 9am; the online auction closes at 2pm on Thursday 12 September. For more information or to place a bid visit the Sotheby’s website.