The former top model Pattie Boyd was married to two well-known musicians – the former Beatle George Harrison and the guitarist Eric Clapton. Memorabilia from her past have now been auctioned in London for around 2.8 million pounds (the equivalent of around 3.3 million euros), as the auction house Christie’s announced.
For example, a love letter that Clapton wrote on a page of the novel “Of Mice and Men” was auctioned. In 1971 he asked Boyd why she was still hesitating, whether he was a bad lover or ugly, too weak, too strong? Boyd was still in a relationship with Harrison at the time, but the two later separated and she got together with Clapton. But this marriage didn’t last either. The letter has now been auctioned for around 120,000 pounds (around 140,000 euros).
Contemporary evidence of the Swinging Sixties
For example, postcards, telegrams, small notes and many photos also went under the hammer. According to Christie’s, the collection fetched more than seven times its previous estimate. Boyd, who celebrated her 80th birthday a few days ago, said she was “totally overwhelmed.”
“I’ve had these things around me for many, many years,” Boyd, who worked first as a model and then as a photographer, told the German Press Agency in London in advance. “And I thought: If I die, what happens to it? Because my nieces and nephews aren’t really interested.”
Inspiration for lyrics
Boyd is also said to have inspired Clapton’s song “Layla” by his former band Derek And The Dominoes. Artist Frandsen De Schomberg’s artwork, which reminded the musician of Boyd and then served as a template for the album cover of “Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs”, fetched the most money at the auction. The oil painting on canvas fetched 1.98 million pounds (around 2.3 million euros).
Clapton once bought the picture and later gave it to Harrison. “When he basically stole me from George, he gave him the painting,” Boyd said. Harrison, in turn, gave it to Boyd when she divorced Clapton.
The men remained friends until Harrison’s death in 2011. Because musicians communicate on a different level, through music, Boyd said. “If you can communicate with someone in that way, then no matter what happens in life or what happens to you as a human being, that’s what stays with you.”
