New York, May 21 (IANS): A guitar smashed by US rock band Nirvana's late frontman Kurt Cobain, in the early 1990s, was sold at an auction for nearly $600,000 - over 10 times of its estimated price, media reports said.

The busted black Fender Stratocaster was sold at the auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on Saturday and acquired for $596,900 by a buyer, whose identity is not known, the BBC reported.

Cobain, who took his own life in 1994, destroyed the guitar as Nirvana was working on their break-out album Nevermind in the early 1990s.

The instrument, which has been put back together but is no longer playable, is signed by all three band members in a silver marker. It also features an affectionate inscription by Cobain to his friend and musical collaborator Mark Lanegan - who died last year.

Cobain, who often misspelt his own name, signed the instrument "Kurdt Kobain".

According to the auction house, Cobain gave the guitar to Lanegan during the North American leg of Nirvana's Nevermind tour in 1992.

Two years ago, the acoustic guitar Cobain used for his legendary MTV Unplugged performance in late 1993 sold for $6 million.