john lennon

Also taking place on March 26 along with the auction of Slash's collection at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills is a Rock Legends auction. This sale is a catch-all collection of a variety of memorabilia spanning decades of music history. Shown above are some of the highlights including a handwritten set of the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Beat-It" estimated to sell at $4,000 to $6,000.

Wikicollecting.org, a new collaborative wiki project for collectors, has created the a list of the top five most expensive collectibles associated with The Beatles. The popular band has spawned many museums and items that are associated with members of the band, especially in relation to the creation of their music, sell very well, often at auction at some of the world's top houses. The top collectibles are associated with the life and music of John Lennon.

1) John Lennon's Rolls-Royce Phantom V – $2.23 million. In 1985, a psychedelic hand-painted Rolls-Royce Phantom V owned by John Lennon was sold by Sotheby's. This amazing car with custom modifications including a seat that converts to a double bed, a television and an interior-exterior sound system, is housed at the Royal BC Museum. Canadian businessman Jim Pattison donated the car to the museum.

2) The piano John Lennon used to write Imagine - $2.1 million. The simple walnut-finished Steinway upright that John Lennon used to write the song "Imagine" is an example of a humble collectible that has acquired value because it is part of history. It is considered to be one of the most valuable pieces of music memorabilia with a current estimated value of $8 million to $12 million. Musician George Michael bought the piano at auction for $2.1 million in 2000 and composed the song "Patience" on it. The instrument was recently on loan to the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

As part of the 125th anniversary celebrations for Mercedes-Benz, a 1965 Mercedes 600 Pullman landaulet (above) custom built for Pope Paul VI will be on display at the 16th Annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance in Florida on March 11–13. The historic vehicle is making its first appearance on U.S. soil as part of a featured Class of Mercedes-Benz 600s at the prestigious event. The 600 Pullman was originally presented in September 1963 at the Frankfurt International Motor Show and quickly became the vehicle of choice among the world's wealthy elite; in addition to the Pope, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Hugh Hefner and Coco Chanel owned one. The luxe limousine was equipped with Mercedes' first ever V-8 able to reach 0-62 mph in 10 seconds.

This vehicle built for the Pope was specially constructed with an individual seat for the pontiff that could be raised and lowered during the car's procession through crowded streets. An elevated roof, extended rear doors, and raised floor were also fitted along with other special equipment such as bulletproof glass. Over two decades, the car was used by three popes including John Paul I and John Paul II and was returned to Mercedes-Benz's Stuttgart, Germany headquarters in 1985. It comes to Amelia courtesy of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart where it is one of many famous and priceless cars in its collection.

If you were just getting your driver's license now, what car would you buy? John Lennon got a Ferrari. This is the one, and it's going up for auction.

The Beatles frontman didn't get his license until he was 25, rich and famous, and when he did, local car dealers lined up outside the gates of his Kenwood residence with an array of cars to choose from. He ultimately selected this French racing blue Ferrari 330 GT 2+2, and though it was soon joined in the motor pool by a Mini and a Rolls-Royce, this will always remain the first car of the rock & roll legend.

Destined for the auction block on February 5 at the Grand Palais in Paris, Bonhams estimates its value between €120,000 – 170,000 ($155-220k).

The Beatles made the a crosswalk near the Abbey Road music studios in London famous back in 1969 when a photo of the Fab Four striding across the zebra crossing was on the cover of the "Abbey Road" album. The image, which features John Lennon leading the group in a white suit, has been imitated by many who have visited the site. Now the crosswalk is the first street crossing to ever be declared a historic landmark by the British government. The Abbey Road music studios declared a historic landmark back in February. The crossing was given Grade II status, an honor generally reserved for buildings of historic significance.

This year has seen a resurgence of interest in the iconic band with the release of Beatles music on iTunes and celebrations of John Lennon's life in honor of the 30th anniversary of his death and what would have been his 70th birthday. Paul McCartney, who appeared on the cover as the only barefoot Beatle, said that it was a"a great year for me and a great year for the Beatles and hearing that the Abbey Road crossing is to be preserved is the icing on the cake."

Julien's Auctions presents an auction of "Icons & Idols" memorabilia and ephemera on December 3rd and 4th, 2010 in Beverly Hills, California that features an extensive collection of John Lennon/Beatles memorabilia.

The auction includes handwritten working lyrics, drawings and clothing from John Lennon. One of the most expensive lots is a jacket, worn by Lennon in 1966 for a Life magazine photo shoot. It is estimated to sell for as much as $200,000. Another top lot is a guitar that Jimi Hendrix borrowed from a friend when he was growing up and used in his first stage performances. The vintage guitar is currently on display at the Seattle Experience Music Project in an exhibition devoted to Jimi Hendrix and is also estimated to sell for as much as $200,000. The auction also offers personal clothing from icons such as Cher, Madonna and Michael Jackson.

[via Art Daily]

A new music and art collection is being launched in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of John Lennon's birth. The John Lennon Box of Vision is a limited edition individually numbered collection available for pre-order at www.BoxOfVision.com for early October delivery.

The package is officially licensed by Yoko Ono Lennon and includes a 166-page hard bound book containing all of John Lennon's, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono's, LP artwork, restored in new LP-size art prints. This book is full of front covers, back covers, gatefolds and inserts arranged to create the feeling of holding and enjoying the entire LP collection in your lap. The "Catalography," is a brand new, full color discography of John's, and John and Yoko's, album catalog, with an exclusive essay and textual guide; newly restored reproductions of classic Lennon album advertisements; John's handwritten "sound" notes to Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey and more. The BoxOfVision CD storage system is built to store all of John Lennon's official CD releases and can hold up to 32 different CD albums, in an expandable and adaptable format to accommodate any fan's collection (CDs not included). The collection also has two art-adorned recordable DVDs, and two different art-adorned recordable CDs, intended for fans to record and store audiovisual and audio content they choose. Boxofvision has received permission from Yoko Ono to create these unique recordable discs using classic John, and John and Yoko, art elements.

The whole thing is housed in an "artist's canvas" oversized Box (measuring over 15 inches by 13 inches, and 4 inches deep), the set is wrapped in a stunning, silver-inked portrait of John Lennon, with a precise reproduction of John's original line drawing "Baby Grand" on the back. The limited edition set will number a total of 7500 numbered copies available worldwide. The retail list price is $124.99. Check out a video about the project after the jump.

The John Lennon-penned lyrics to "A Day in the Life" are being auctioned by Sotheby's New York on June 18. "A Day in the Life" was the last song on The Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – in countries where it wasn't stripped from the album – and the first credited with making The Beatles true artists. Being a Beatles production, the lyrics and song also came with enough controversy to match its accolades.

These same lyrics have been auctioned before, and although bidding a few years ago in a Bonham's offering was said to reach $2 million, this time Sotheby's places estimates at anywhere from $500,000 to $700,000.

The painting shown above, a 1968 watercolor by American artist Jim Dine, has an interesting story. The work was originally commissioned by Capitol Records for a Beatles album which was never made because the Beatles left Capitol and formed the Apple Records label. The graphite and watercolor on vellum lot of five works depict individual toothbrushes labeled for each member of the band The pieces, which are expected to bring $25,000-35,000, have been in the private collection of former president of Capital Records, Sal Iannucci, and his wife Aileen.

These unique pieces are part of the Bonhams & Butterfields fall auction of Modern, Contemporary and Latin American Art on November 17, 2009 in Los Angeles. The over 200-lot sale will include pieces by Alexander Calder, Paul Cézanne, Pedro Coronel, Emil Filla, George Grosz, Armand Guillaumin, Henri Lebasque, Fernand Léger, Maximilien Luce, Diego Rivera, Frank Stella, Maurice Utrillo, Andy Warhol and Francisco Zúñiga, as well as a selection of contemporary Asian art. The auction catalogue's cover lot, Study for a Blue Nude, 2000 by Tom Wesselmann is expected to bring $50,000-70,000.

Whether you're looking to recreate the Brady Bunch's "silver platter" glory or just have a family that's dying to lay down some tracks, Villa Rockstar is ready to host you. The extremely, absurdly upscale villa at Eden Rock on St. Barth's offers 16,000 square feet of bliss and includes a full recording studio designed by Ocean Way Recording. But, you know that. You may not realize, however, that you'll be touching musical history – regardless of how talented you are. The console installed at Villa Rockstar was used by John Lennon when he recorded "Imagine."

So, in addition to the four enormous master suites (including one named for Lennon), full gym, private office and cars on hand, you can create a masterpiece (or not) before retiring to the pool or playing some croquet out on the lawn. Settle in for an astounding dining experience ... but only after you see what's going on at the Eden Rock Gallery (through which several amazing artists have passed.

When you get home, listen to what you have created, and try to fight the urge to go back (it won't work).

Last year, we ran a piece on the world of rare records but if a copy of the Beatles infamous "butcher cover" sells for its asking price it might set a new record. To coincide with the worldwide release of the digitally re-mastered back catalog of every Beatles album on 09/09/09 the Saint Giles Street Gallery in Norwich, England in association with the British Beatles Fan Club is showing the "Eleven Million Dollar Picture Show", a collection of rarely photographs and other memorabilia. The show includes an original banned Beatles "butcher cover", a printer's proof from the personal collection of John Lennon. The "butcher cover" will be exhibited with a note signed by John Lennon that says, "here's the famous banned butcher cover. You can sell it for 11 million dollars". And that will be the price. The album will be on show and on sale for $11 million from the September 10 onward. Butcher album covers vary in price generally fetching several thousand dollars.

The cover was the original cover of Yesterday and Today issued only in the United States and Canada. The original cover image, showing the band in white butcher coats holding doll parts and pieces of meat was shot by photographer Robert Whitaker. A few original covers were shipped to disc jockeys and store managers and an outcry immediately arose. The album was hastily recalled and a new cover was slapped on. In the collectibles world there are original untouched covers, covers bearing the second image and covers that have had the second image removed or partially peeled off. The rarer versions are still in the original shrink wrap.


[via Beatles News]

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
----Real estate heiress Caroline Cumming has cut the price on her 12,128-square-foot townhouse at 11 Spring Street in New York City, shown above. It went on the market for $39.8 million in September and is now listed at $29.5 million.
--Risa Meyer, the daughter of late socialite and philanthropist Kitty Meyer and founder of the party-goods store PlumParty.com, has put her three-bedroom condo at Trump Parc East on the market for $14.8 million. The listing is here.
--Real estate developer Hunter Lipton and his wife, Tara, have paid $4.6 million for an apartment at 255 East 74th Street.
--Christiane Celle, the founder of the Calypso boutiques and her husband, fashion photographer Antoine Verglas, have lowered the price of their duplex penthouse at 129 Lafayette Street. The four-bedroom loft went on the market for $13.995 million but is now priced at $11.999 million.The listing is here.
--Visa senior vice president Darren Parslow and art director Justin Durongsaeng paid $1.9 million for a condo at 133 West 22nd Street.
--Nicole Eddy and her husband paid $7.3 million for a penthouse at the Chelsea Modern on West 18th Street.
--National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman and his wife Michelle have paid $1.95 million for a condo at the Grand Beekman.
--More financial fallout. Hedge funder Scott Bessent has dropped the price of his duplex at One Sutton Place South again. He put it on the market for $12.5 million in October and it is now listed at $9.95 million, about $2 million less than he paid for it in 2007.
--Hotel developer Henry Kallan and his wife Emilia paid $2.995 million for a 38th-floor, three-bedroom co-op at 45 East 89th Street.
--Architect Teresa Sapey has lowered the price of her apartment at the Plaza. She bought the two-bedroom unit for $6.9 million in 2007 and put back on the market for $10 million just a few months later. It's now listed at $8.5 million.
--The latest round of 'which celebrity's house is this?' features a home on Mandeville Canyon Road in Los Angeles' Brentwood area, which sold at the end of 2008 for $2.25 million.


From the LA TImes Hot Property:
--Soap opera actor Ingo Rademacher has listed his Venice, California home. We'll check it out later as our estate of the day.
----The voice of Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron, Debi Derryberry has listed a four-bedroom home in Toluca Lake, California for $2.5 million. The listing is here.
Travelscape's Tim Poster has listed his Laguna Beach home at $6.9 million. The listing for the three-story custom home is here.
--Decorating maven Kitty Bartholomew has listed her own Santa Monica cottage for $2.195 million. The listing is here.

From the Telegraph:
--Nicolas Cage has sold his German castle. We checked this out earlier in the week.

From the Real Estalker:
--Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott has put her Los Angeles home on the market. We checked it our earlier this week.
--Manuela Herzer, a former companion of Sumner Redstone, has picked up the home belonging to Lance Bass. She paid $3.85 million. It was listed at $3.925 million when it was our estate of the day last November.
--via Page Six, Kelly Bensimon from Real Housewives of New York City is said to be selling her East Hampton, New York home for a rumored $10.9 million and Countess Luann de Lesseps from the same show is putting her Bridgehampton home up for sale for $9.5 million.
--Hank Azaria has picked up a seven-bedroom Bel Air home which was last listed $13.975 million.
--David Spade has put his Malibu home up for rent for $65,000 a month.
--Spice Girl Melanie Brown has already sold her home which we covered last week as an estate of the day. Rumor has it that it sold for above the $2,999,999 asking price.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Rock star, author and activist Henry Rollins has listed his home in the Hollywood Hills. We checked it out earlier this week.
--A five-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills that John Lennon once lived in has come on the market for $4.5 million. The listing is here.
--Gangster legend Al Capone's onetime house in Chicago is on the market for $450,000. The two-flat building was built in 1914. The listing (without pictures) is here.
--Husband-and-wife actors William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman have paid exactly $1 million to purchase multi-unit residential building in Los Angeles' Fairfax District.
--Actor Richard T. Jones has listed his four-bedroom home in Encino for sale for $1.599 million. The property website is here.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Las Vegas nightlife entrepreneur and real-estate developer Andrew Sasson has listed just-finished contemporary mansion on Kailua Beach in Oahu for $21 million. The listing is here.
--Actress Anne Archer has offering her Rhode Island condominium for $1.1 million. We'll check this one out later in the week.
--Nedra Matteucci, a fixture of the Santa Fe, New Mexico art world, is asking $13.5 million for an adobe-style compound that includes one of her galleries and five homes. The listing for the Matteucci Compound is here.


From Move Trends:
--Shaquille O'Neal has cut the price on his home on Star Island in Miami yet again. It was listed at $29 million last year when we had it as an estate of the day. It is now listed at $22.5 million.

Halcyon House, which was listed at $30 million when it was our estate of the day, has had a deep price cut to $19.5 million.

A rare, never-publicly-heard recording of a drunk and high John Lennon improvising naughty song lyrics is on offer for an estimated $30,000 - $40,000 at Bonhams' Entertainment Sale in Los Angeles on Sunday.

The six minute audiocasette, recorded in the fall of 1973, features Lennon's off-the-cuff rendition of the Lloyd Price song "Just Because." The recording took place during what Lennon referred to as his "Lost Weekend" when he and Yoko Ono separated and he took up with mistress May Pang.

The cassette is an outtake from a recording session for the song, which was included on Lennon's 1975 album Rock 'n' Roll. At the time, while working on the album with Phil Spector in Los Angeles, Lennon was heavily into drink and drugs, as reflected in the recording.

Though some of Lennon's lyrics are garbled, he can be heard to sing, in part, "I wanna take all them new singers, Carol and the other one with the nipples, I wanna take 'em and hold 'em tight, all them people that James Taylor had...I wanna suck your nipples, baby... Just a little cocaine will set me right."

The buzz at big photo auctions lately has been all about nude supermodels. Perfectly understandable, of course, but how many times can you really stand to see Gisele naked? (OK, no need to answer that). At Sotheby's latest photo sale in London on Tuesday, we're pleased to see some stunning images on offer which while short on supermodel cleavage nonetheless have plenty of appeal. Take for instance this portrait of the beautiful Brigitte Bardot taken by Terry O'Neill 1971 with an estimate of $8,000 - $12,000. Not one of the more expensive items on offer, but worth every penny in our estimation.

Also included in the amazing auction is Helmut Newton's 1975 photo of Elsa Peretti, est. $24,000 - $30,000, and his 1987 portrait of Jodie Foster, est. $14,000 - $18,000; Andy Warhol's Polaroid of Muhammad Ali taken in 1977, est. $10,000 - $14,000; David Bailey's 1969 double portrait of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, est. $20,000 - $30,000; and a recent print made from Bert Stern's famed Marilyn Monroe series (recently aped by Lindsay Lohan), est. $6,000 - $8,000. See the gallery for more.