Clapton guitar sells for close to $1 million

NEW YORK -- One of Eric Clapton's prize guitars sold for a record $959,500 at an auction that raised more than $7.4 million for a drug treatment center, auction house officials said.

"Blackie," the black-and-white Fender Stratocaster that served as Clapton's sole stage and studio guitar from 1970 to 1985, was the most expensive ever sold at auction, Christie's said in a statement. In 2002, a guitar belonging to Jerry Garcia sold for $957,500.

The buyer of Clapton's guitar -- one of 56 he offered last week -- was not disclosed.

Proceeds will go to the Crossroads Centre in Antigua, an addiction treatment center Clapton established in 1998.

"I am thrilled at the result, which is going to be of enormous help to us in achieving our long-term aims at the Centre," Clapton said in a statement.

Bidding was fierce for several other guitars, too. Clapton's 1964 cherry-red Gibson ES-335, along with its case, sold for $847,500, which Christie's said was a world auction record for a Gibson.

"Lenny," the guitar Stevie Ray Vaughan played from the 1970s until his death in 1990, sold for $623,500, Christie's said. The guitar was donated by Vaughan's estate.