by Paul Majendie
LONDON (Reuters) – John Lennon's piano and stretch
limousine failed to reach their reserve price when put up for
sale this week by a London Internet auction house.
But auction specialist Ted Owen still insisted afterwards:
“There is no hint of the bottom falling out of the Beatles
memorabilia market.”
“The car fell 10,000 pounds ($14,380) short of its reserve
price of 200,000 pounds ($287,600). But I still think there is
a sale to be had and there is a possibility of a deal being
done privately tomorrow,” Owen told Reuters afterwards.
“The piano had a reserve price on it of 1 million pounds
($1.44 million) and bidding reached 750,000 pounds ($1.08
million). I'm disappointed about the piano as we had announced
beforehand that all the proceeds were going to a breast cancer
charity,” he said.
Owen said 85 percent of the other lots in the rock
memorabilia auction were sold — but he was obviously
disappointed that the two star items did not find a buyer.
Owen has combined with Mick Fleetwood, the drummer with the
multi-million selling supergroup Fleetwood Mac, to organize
“Rock Legend” sales.
Their latest auction was opened two weeks ago on their
Internet site www.fleetwoodowen.com and attracted
prospective buyers from Brazil to Japan, the United States to
Europe. It was concluded Tuesday night at the Hard Rock Cafe in
London.
The Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman limousine being offered in
the auction had a checkered rock 'n' roll past.
The white limousine was ordered by Lennon in 1969 to mark
the start of his solo career with Yoko Ono. On moving to New
York in 1973, he sold it to fellow Beatle George Harrison, who
in turn sold it to Mary Wilson of the Supremes. It was then
lovingly restored by a collector.
Owen and Fleetwood combined last October to auction the
Steinway piano that the charismatic Beatle used to write the
classic “Imagine.”
It was bought by singer George Michael for $2.1 million.
The piano that went under the hammer Tuesday night was kept
by Lennon in his Dakota apartment in New York for the last
seven years of his life. He was gunned down outside the
apartment in December 1980 by a crazed fan.
Owen said that Lennon's “Double Fantasy” album was
“probably created on it. He never went out of the building for
five years and we assume a lot of work was done on this piano.”
“It was put up for sale in a competition by Sean Lennon and
Yoko Ono in 1984 to promote one of Yoko's albums,” he said.
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