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Guitar used by John Lennon sold for $2.9m (£2.3m), setting what organizers called a new world record for the best-selling guitar at auction in Beatles history.
The Hootenanny 12-string acoustic guitar used in the recording of Help! album and film, not seen or played in over 50 years.
The instrument was owned by Scottish guitarist Gordon Waller, famous for being one half of the pop duo Peter and Gordon, who later gave the item to his band’s road managers.
Decades later, new owners living in the British countryside rediscovered the guitar during their move and put it up for auction with an estimate of between £485,000 and £647,000.
The guitar was purchased by telephone bidding at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on Wednesday as part of a two-day auction music icon sale by Julien’s Auctions.
David Goodman, chief executive of the auctioneers, said: “We are absolutely thrilled and honored to set a new world record with the sale of John Lennon’s lost Hootenanny guitar.
“This guitar is not only a piece of music history, but also a symbol of John Lennon’s lasting legacy.
“Today’s unprecedented sale is a testament to the enduring appeal and reverence of the music of The Beatles and John Lennon.”
The guitar, made by the Bavarian firm Framus in the early 1960s, was seen on Help! movie when the band performs You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.
It was also used during the recording sessions for Help!, It’s Only Love, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Girl, and on the rhythm track for Norwegian Wood played by George Harrison.
Darren Julien, co-founder and CEO of Julien’s Auctions, said he traveled to the UK to check the guitar at the house where it had been stored and salvaged the original box, which had been thrown in the bin.
Julien said he had confirmed the origin of the instrument via Beatles historians Andy Babuk and Danny Bennett.
In 2015, Julien’s sold another of Lennon’s guitars: a J-160E Gibson acoustic guitar stolen from him and unwittingly bought by a musician in the late 1960s, which brought in $2.4 million (£1.6 million at the time).
The company sold a drum kit used by Ringo Starr for $2.2 millionand a copy of the White Album his property.
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