Thanks to the song “Now and Then,” which was restored using artificial intelligence, the Beatles are on everyone’s lips again. At auction, a Grammy awarded to John Lennon (1940-1980) in 1972 could fetch a high six-figure sum. The auction house Gotta Have Rock and Roll expects a hammer price of 300,000 to 500,000 US dollars (around 280,000 to 465,000 euros). The online auction runs until this Friday. Beatles fans with financial reserves can bid directly on the auctioneer’s homepage. The minimum bid is $200,000 (approximately 185,000 euros).
The award up for auction is an honorary prize. In 1972, the Beatles were awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for their complete work – two years after the band’s breakup. Each of the four Beatles received their own award, engraved with their name.
But unlike Paul McCartney (81), Ringo Starr (83) and George Harrison (1943-2001), John Lennon did not want to accept the prize. He said at the time that he no longer felt like he was part of the Beatles. Lennon gave the gramophone-shaped statue to the head of Apple Records, the Beatles’ record label founded in 1968.
Lennon’s rejected Grammy isn’t the only, nor probably the most expensive, Beatles memorabilia awaiting bids at Gotta Have Rock and Roll’s winter auction. According to those responsible, a guitar from 1962 that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison played could fetch up to a million US dollars.
