Beatles memorabilia worth an estimated £6m goes for auction
An archive of material from John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 peace protest is among the items to be sold this month at one of the most expensive Beatles auctions ever held.
Memorabilia will go under an online hammer with an upper estimated value of $8m (£6.3m). It includes a section of TV set wall that formed the backdrop to the Beatles’ breakthrough Ed Sullivan show appearance, clothes, speakers, signed contracts and a curious birthday card from George Harrison to his caretaker signed “Adolf Schinkengruber”.
The auction will be hosted by GottaHaveRockandRoll auctions in New York.
The bed-in material not only provides insights into Lennon and Ono’s frame of mind but it also tells the fascinating story of an enterprising teenage fan who blagged her way into the bedroom and secured an interview.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in Gibraltar in March 1969, a place chosen, he said, because it was “quiet, British and friendly”. After a few days in Paris they arrived in Amsterdam in Lennon’s white Rolls Royce to begin their bed-in: a week-long peace protest staged against the backdrop of the Vietnam war. It became a huge media event with journalists invited in to ask questions of the pyjama-wearing couple.
Source: Mark Brown/theguardian.com
