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"John Lennon&amp;apos;s long-lost acoustic Gibson J-160E, used in the recording of the Beatles&amp;apos; Please Please Me and With the Beatles LPs, shattered all estimates&amp;#xA0;Saturday on the Julien&amp;apos;s Live auction block, as the instrument sold for $2.41 million, a record for a guitar with music history significance. Lennon purchased the Gibson at Rushworth&amp;#x2019;s Music House in Liverpool in September 1962 for &amp;#xA3;161. The guitar, which was lost for over&amp;#xA0;40 years, sold for three times its $800,000 estimate to an unspecified buyer who asked to remain anonymous.\r\n\r\nIt&amp;apos;s unclear how Lennon was&amp;#xA0;separated from&amp;#xA0;the instrument, which was also used on the Beatles&amp;apos; first single &amp;quot;Love Me Do&amp;quot; / &amp;quot;P.S. I Love You,&amp;quot; but it resurfaced in a San Diego music shop in the summer of 1967; however, the purchaser had no idea the guitar once belonged to Lennon. It wasn&amp;apos;t until 2008 that the guitar&amp;apos;s provenance was discovered. &amp;quot;Its importance in Beatles history cannot be overstated; this guitar is intimately bound to the early career of The Beatles,&amp;quot; Julien&amp;apos;s Live said of the guitar. &amp;quot;This is the earliest and most significant John Lennon guitar to be auctioned.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nBy comparison, Lennon&amp;apos;s Gretsch guitar, used on the Beatles&amp;apos; 1966 single &amp;quot;Paperback Writer,&amp;quot; sold for $530,000&amp;#xA0;to Indianapolis Colts owner and guitar collector Jim Irsay in November 2014. Irsay also spent&amp;#xA0;$965,000 for Bob Dylan&amp;apos;s&amp;#xA0;Fender Stratocaster&amp;#xA0;used at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the infamous &amp;quot;Dylan goes electric&amp;quot; guitar. A white Fender Stratocaster signed by an army of guitar gods&amp;#xA0;&amp;#x2013; Keith Richards, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend and others&amp;#xA0;&amp;#x2013; sold for $2.7 million at a charity auction for tsunami victims in 2007.\r\nHalf of the proceeds from the sale of Lennon&amp;apos;s Gibson will go towards the Spirit Foundation, a charitable organization that he and&amp;#xA0;Yoko Ono formed.\r\nLennon&amp;apos;s acoustic Gibson wasn&amp;apos;t the only Beatles-related item to far exceed expectations: The band&amp;apos;s Beatles-emblazoned Ludwig bass drumhead, used by Ringo Starr during the Beatles&amp;apos; February 9th, 1964 debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, sold for $2.125 million, more than doubling its $1 million estimate. The drumhead was also used at the Beatles&amp;apos; first U.S. concert at Washington Coliseum on February 11th, 1964 as well as other stops along the Beatles&amp;apos; inaugural North American visit. A baseball signed by all four Beatles in 1966 also sold for $100,000.\r\n\r\nAnother significant item on the auction block &amp;#x2013; Kurt Cobain&amp;apos;s green cardigan, worn by the singer during Nirvana&amp;apos;s legendary MTV Unplugged performance &amp;#x2013; more than doubled its $60,000 estimate. That well-worn Manhattan brand sweater, featuring discoloration and a missing button, sold for $137,500.\r\nElvis Presley&amp;apos;s 24K gold leaf piano, a staple of the rocker&amp;apos;s Graceland estate, also sold for $600,000."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/john-lennons-love-me-do-guitar-sells-for-record-2-4-million-20151108>