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BEATLE MEMORABILIA AT AUCTION

From autographs to musical instruments to teeth – yes, teeth – anything connected
with The Beatles is big business, and can earn its owner a pretty penny.

While money can’t buy you love perhaps – it can buy you a slice of Fab Four history,
such as John Lennon’s Steinway piano on which he composed Imagine, and which
cost the late George Michael a cool £1.45million at auction in 2000, and which was
loaned to The Beatles Story to display for some time. Each year, a special memo-
rabilia valuation day is held by The Beatles Story and Julien’s Auctions, and even
nearly 50 years after The Beatles split up, hitherto unseen items are coming to light.

In 2016, a letter written by John Lennon to the Queen and explaining why he was
returning his MBE, was discovered and valued at £60,000. It had been tucked in the
sleeve of a record bought as part of a £10 job lot at a car boot sale in the 1990s.

And last autumn, a set of 26 negatives of the ex-Beatle, taken in 1970, were brought
along and estimated to be worth around £10,000. The days prove so popular, and
unearth so many Beatles gems, they’re even going transatlantic with a special Dis-
covery Day planned for New York in May 2018.

Darren Julien, president of Julien’s Auctions, which has been responsible for many
of the major sales of Beatle-related memorabilia, says: “The market just continues to
increase. I remember when George Harrison guitars used to sell for £200-300,000
and now you’d be looking at £800,000. There aren’t a lot of things on the market,
and it’s rare for really historic items to come up for auction. Beatles memorabilia is
really the holy grail.”

Here are some other Lennon and Beatle-related items which have been sold at auc-
tion over the years:

• Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit: $2.2m (£1.55m)
• John Lennon’s acoustic guitar: £1.45m
• John Lennon’s psychedelic Rolls Royce: £1.4m
• Handwritten lyrics to All You Need is Love: $1m (£706,530)
• George Harrison’s Gibson guitar: $567,000 (£400,600)
• The original contract between the Beatles and Brian Epstein: £240,000
• A signed copy of Sgt Pepper: $290,000 (£204,900)
• A lock of John Lennon’s hair: £24,000
• One of John Lennon’s teeth: £19,500
• Detention sheets from Quarry Bank School labelling Lennon a nuisance and class clown:
• £8,000 each
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