Vintage Gere: Richard Gere's Collection of Guitars and Amps Fetches $1M at Auction

Guitarist Richard Gere -- who also does a bit of film acting, we're told -- auctioned off a massive part of his impressive collection of vintage guitars yesterday in New York City. The axes fetched nearly $1 million at auction.

The Christie's sale of 110 guitars and amps included some lovely Gibsons, Fenders, Gretsches and Martins. Some of the guitars were owned by Albert King and Peter Tosh.

The star of the auction, however, was his 1960 Gibson Les Paul, which sold for more than $98,000.

Gere, who is not best known for his role in the 1994 film And the Band Played On, says he sold the gear to support global humanitarian causes. He says he never planned to assemble a guitar collection and bought only guitars that he liked and that sounded good to him.

Gere spoke about his guitars in the latest issue of Guitar Aficionado magazine.