The piano John Lennon used to compose some of his most notable songs for The Beatles has set the record for the most expensive piece of memorabilia sold from the band.
Lennon used the Broadwood upright piano to write songs such as Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, A Day In The Life, and Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!, which featured on The Beatles’ eighth studio album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The piano sold for nearly $3.3m (£2.5m) at Christie’s New York auction house after being estimated it would fetch between $400,000 and $600,000, setting the record as the most expensive object from The Beatles to be sold.
It was sold as part of The Jim Irsay Collection: Hall of Fame, which also included a drum kit by fellow Beatle Sir Ringo Starr and other music, film and sports memorabilia.
The Beatles helped transform pop music in the 1960s, with Lennon, who died aged 40 in 1980, Sir Ringo, Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison, becoming the best-selling musical act of all time.
They achieved 18 UK number one singles and 15 UK number one albums.
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, A Day In The Life, and Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! were all written in 1967.
The auction also saw the sale of Sir Ringo’s first Ludwig drum kit, which he used in live performances and studio sessions with the band in its early years from May 1963 to February 1964, It sold for nearly $2.4m (£1.8m).
The three-piece set briefly broke the record for the most expensive drum kit sold until a drum head from his second Ludwig kit fetched $2.9m (£2.2m).
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The drum head, which was used during the band’s first visit to America when the group famously performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, set the record as the most expensive item of Sir Ringo’s to be sold.
Other Beatles items included in the auction were several photographs, handwritten letters and signed postcards from Lennon, as well as an affidavit filed by his bandmate Sir Paul to break up the hit band.
