Hundreds of objects, clothes and manuscripts from the home of rock star Freddie Mercury are on display in London prior to their auction.

The collection, which has remained unknown to the public since the death of the Queen singer in 1991, includes his grand piano, stage costumes and the original draft of the hit 'Bohemian Rhapsody', estimated at around one million pounds. 

The Director at Sotheby's Gabriel Heaton said: "This is a unique opportunity, a wonderful occasion, because we're bringing together here a wide range of items that represent both Freddie Mercury's personal life and his public stage life. The vast majority of what we have on view here has never been seen in public before."

He spoke about the collection saying: "Mary Austin has lived with the collection and has cared for the collection for more than three decades now. And it is the time where she felt she needed to work out what the next steps for the collection would be. And actually, Freddie loved auctions. He was not interested in having a museum of his life but he loved auctions. He bought herem he was well known here. And so she felt this will be great, this is what he would have loved he would have, he would have loved all this. "

The Managing Director for Europe Sotheby's Cécile Bernard said: "A lot of the teams at Sotheby's have worked at understanding how these objects connect together and try to recreate the process that Freddie went through when he bought or even designed himself some of the things that will be in the, in the auction. There is of course his natural talents as an artist, as a musician, as a set designer, as a costume designer. But there is also all the intimacy and how he also loved to meet with his friends, he loved to have dinner receptions."

She continued saying: "We had to unveil all of this almost when we went to Garden Lodge where he lived, we literally opened suitcases and boxes and found things and try to imagine: okay, where is this placed in the process of Freddie? This belt, it goes with which pair of trousers? Which goes with which? And we have been like archeologists doing that, with so much fun!"