A recently discovered guitar that John Lennon used to record many of The Beatles’ songs in the 1960s and then disappeared for 50 years has sold at auction for $2.9 million It was sold and became one of the band’s most valuable memorabilia.
The 12-string acoustic guitar, called the Hootenanny, is believed to have been lost after Lennon and his bandmate George Harrison used it to record the 1965 Beatles albums Rubber Soul and Help! Julien’s Auctions, the Los Angeles-based auction house handling Wednesday’s sale, said it also included the soundtrack to the band’s film of the same name.
Later that year, Mr. Lennon gave a 1964 guitar made by German instrument maker Framus to Gordon Waller, a member of the British pop duo Peter & Gordon. Mr Waller gave it to one of his road managers, who took the guitar to his home in the English countryside and threw it in the attic, the auction house said.
Julien Auctions co-founder Darren Julien said in a video that more than 50 years later, a British man discovered the guitar in the attic when his parents moved out of the house. Mr Julian said they notified the auction house in March after they found it, along with the original guitar case.
“The son told us that he had been hearing his father talk about the guitar, but he believed it had been lost,” Martin Nolan, another co-founder of Julien’s Auctions, says in the video.
The auction house consulted Beatles expert Andy Babiuk, who has authenticated band memorabilia in the past, to authenticate the guitar. The auction house said Mr Babik determined the guitar was the one played by Mr Lennon after comparing the instrument’s wood grain and wear patterns with those in archival images.
“Check your attic, guys,” Mr. Nolan said.
Other famous instruments have reappeared after being lost for more than fifty years. Paul McCartney’s Hefner violin bass was discovered last year. Mr Lennon’s Gibson acoustic guitar was also forgotten, sold in 2015 to an anonymous buyer for $2.4 million.
After half a century in the attic, Mr Lennon’s Hutnani needed some restoration. Ryan Schuermann, a repairman in Los Angeles, performed a complex process that included removing its neck and attaching it back to the body at a better angle.
The guitar features a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a 19-fret rosewood fretboard, and decorative soundhole rosettes, and is sold with a Maton guitar case and a DVD box set of the movie “The Help.” and a collection of photos from movie locations.
The guitar’s value before the auction was estimated at $600,000 to $800,000. The auction house said the guitar sold to an anonymous buyer for $2,857,500, making it the fifth most expensive guitar ever sold.
“Finding this extraordinary instrument was like finding a lost Rembrandt or Picasso,” Mr. Julien added in a statement. “It still looks and plays like a dream.”
