Kirk Hammett, Metallica's lead guitarist since 1983, is letting go of a Frank Frazetta painting he's lived with for 15 years. "Conan the Berserker," a 1967 oil work that once graced the cover of Robert E. Howard's fantasy novel, goes to auction this December with a $10 million opening bid.
Hammett bought the painting in 2009 for $1 million—already a record price for Frazetta at the time. The work shows Conan mid-battle, muscles tensed, a skeleton with an ax lunging from below while his horse seems to leap above the chaos. It's the kind of image that defined pulp fantasy illustration in the mid-20th century.
Frazetta, who died in 2010, spent his career creating what Heritage Auctions now calls "the most successful commercial artworks ever created." His work bridged high craft and popular culture in a way that still feels rare. Hammett's collection—horror, sci-fi, memorabilia—was substantial enough to warrant a 2012 book and a 2017 exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum. He wasn't a casual collector.
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Start Your News DetoxBut in a video about the auction, Hammett explains his thinking with a phrase that lands quietly: "We don't really own art. We're just lucky enough to travel through life with it for a short time as caretakers." He sees the painting moving on not as a loss but as a transition. A new owner, a new story, a new chapter for a piece that's already lived several lives—as pulp cover art, as a collector's prize, and now as something else entirely.
The auction runs December 9-10. Whether it sells for $10 million or more, the painting will find its next caretaker.
