On Wednesday, May 29, a guitar of Beatles star John Lennon was sold for a record-breaking $2.9 million at auction. The 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar was used in recording the Beatles' 1965 album and film 'Help!'
The guitar, thought to have been lost for almost 60 years, has become one of the band's most valuable pieces of memorabilia.
According to Julien's Auctions, the Los Angeles-based auction house that handled the sale, the Hootenanny was believed to be lost after Lennon and his bandmate George Harrison used it to record the 1965 Beatles albums 'Rubber Soul' and 'Help!' and the soundtrack to the band's film of the same name.
Later that year, Lennon sent British pop duo Peter & Gordon member Gordon Waller the 1964 guitar. The auction house said that Waller gave the guitar to one of his road managers, who took it to his home in the rural British countryside and stored it in the attic.
Darren Julien, a co-founder of Julien Auctions, said in a video that over 50 years later, a man in Britain found the guitar in his parent's attic when they moved out of the house. After discovering it and its original guitar case, they informed the auction house in March.
"The son told us that he had always heard his dad talk about this guitar, but he'd believed that it was lost," Martin Nolan, another co-founder of Julien's Auctions, said in the video.
The auction house consulted with Andy Babiuk, a Beatles expert who has previously verified the band's memorabilia. Babiuk claimed that Lennon played the guitar after comparing the instruments's wear patterns and wood grain to those in historical images.
Before the auction, the guitar's estimated worth ranged from $600,000 to $800,000. The auction house said it was sold to an anonymous buyer for $2,857,500, making it the fifth most expensive guitar ever sold.
Furthermore, Julien said that finding this remarkable instrument is like finding a lost Rembrandt or Picasso. He noted that it still looks and plays like a dream.
