John Lennon’s ‘lost’ acoustic guitar sells for $2.4 million

45 years later, after using the legendary J-160E to teach his sons how to play guitar and strumming on it during many amateur jam sessions throughout the decades, McCaw got a hold of a 2012 issue of Guitar Aficionado. Lennon used the guitar for about a year before swapping it with Harrison; it later went missing during a Christmas concert in 1963.

In the 15-month period the instrument was in Lennon’s possession, it was used on a number of the band’s early hits, including “She Loves You”, “Please, Please, Me”, “All My Loving” and “From Me to You”, the auction house said. The guitar was used by Lennon in 1962 but mysteriously disappeared in 1963, thought to be lost forever. The one who bought it for $2.41 million at the auction in California has requested to remain anonymous.

“It’s such an important part of Lennon’s career and Beatles history”, Julien said.

As 10 News now reports, the six-string has been auctioned in LA, with experts initially estimating that the piece will fetch somewhere between $600,000 and $800,000.

The Cobain-themed items include a lock of the late musician’s hair (with bidding starting at $4,000), a platinum plaque marking one million sales of Nirvana’s album “Nevermind”, plus the cardigan Cobain wore during the recording of MTV Unplugged in 1993.

According to Guinness World Records, a Fender Stratocaster guitar sold for a record $2.7 million at a 2005 charity event in Qatar. The instrument had been signed by the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney.

The drum head the Beatles used in their breakthrough US performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 was also sold Saturday for $2,050,000, the auction house tweeted.

On Saturday, another big seller at the Julien’s Auctions event was a Beatles drum head, which is the membrane stretched over a drum.