The Strad News - Violin signed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono expected to fetch over ...
The Jean Nicolas Lambert violin was signed by the pair in a Mallorca restaurant in 1971
A violin signed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono is up for auction on Catawiki, with the starting bid at €35,000.
The violin is owned by Spanish violinist and collector Jose Eugenio Sanz Sampedro, who bought the violin in Madrid in 1965. He worked in an orchestra at the Hotel Castillo Son Vida in Palma de Mallorca from 1970 to 1981.
In the auction item description, the violinist describes witnessing the pair being turned away from the hotel restaurant, as Lennon was not wearing a tie. Lennon later returned to the restaurant with a tie attached to his head, and was then admitted to the restaurant.
He approached Lennon and Ono’s table and performed ‘Yesterday’ for them. ’I asked John if he could sign an autograph for me on the violin which they both kindly did using a pen engraving the names into the wood.’The violin also holds signatures from German conductor James Last, and Carlos Arias Navarro: last Head of Government of Spain during the Franco dictatorship.
Source: thestrad.com
