A musician collected 51 rare guitars worth $1.4m, then donated them to students

Sheldon Urlik, a collector of classical and flamenco guitars, has donated 51 instruments from his collection to Arizona State University's School of Music, Dance and Theatre. The gift, which ASU values at about $1.4 million, spans more than a century of guitar making, from an 1869 Francisco González to a 2015 instrument by Marshall Brune. Urlik gave the collection to ASU in 2024, and students now use the guitars for performances, study and rental, rather than seeing them kept as private possessions.A collection built over decadesUrlik is an international collector of classical and flamenco guitars who documented his holdings in A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present, first published in 1997. A revised second edition appeared in 2016. According to ASU, luthier Richard Bruné, the collection's initial appraiser, praised Urlik for collecting flamenco guitars with the same care as classical ones. Bruné said Urlik wanted the collection to trace the evolution of the Spanish guitar from the Torres model to the international instrument now known as the classical guitar.The guitars span more than a centuryThe donated instruments run from the 1869 González to the 2015...