Joy Division Fan Buys Ian Curtis’ House, May Turn It Into Museum

Ian Curtis House

Joy Division Fan Buys Ian Curtis’ House, May Turn It Into Museum

Ian Curtis House

The former home of late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis was up for sale earlier this year, and fans began an Indiegogo campaign to purchase it and turn it into a museum. The campaign didn’t get very far — it raised £2,001, 1 percent of the anticipated £150,000 goal. Joy Division and New Order member Bernard Sumner also expressed his concern that turning the house where Curtis hung himself into a museum would become a de facto “monument to suicide.”

Despite the campaign’s failure, a sole Joy Division fan has now purchased the historic home at 77 Barton Street in Macclesfield, England. Hadar Goldman, 48, who NME describes as an “entrepreneur and musician,” bought the house for £190,000. The asking price was £115,000 (the Indiegogo campaign allowed £35,000 for the cost of converting the home into a museum) and Goldman paid that plus £75,000 in legal fees and compensation.

Here’s what Goldman had to say about his purchase:

Although I paid £190,000 — nearly double the asking price — I felt as if I had to get involved, especially after hearing the plight of the fans who had failed to raise the necessary funds to buy the house owned and lived in by one of the musical heroes of my youth. Joy Division left a musical legacy which has influenced many of today’s bands. This is not just about history and the past. The Joy Division legacy deserves to be taken into the 21st century, to raise awareness into one of the most seminal bands in the history of contemporary music.

Perhaps to soothe the nerves of Sumner and those who share his concerns, a press release announcing the purchase promises that a potential museum would be tastefully managed, indicating that “any venture to preserve the heritage of Joy Division would be sympathetically conceived and developed.”

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