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MUSIC-AUCTION-BRITAIN-BEATLES-LENNON
John Lennon’s round glasses sell for nearly $200,000
LONDON, Dec 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A pair of John Lennon’s sunglasses The
Beatles legend once left behind in the back seat of a car sold Friday for
nearly $200,000 at an auction in London.
Billed as one of the most famous pair of specs in rock-and-roll, the
round, green-tinted lenses and their golden frame belonged to Alan Herring,
the chauffeur for the Liverpool quartet’s drummer Ringo Starr and band mate
George Harrison.
“In the summer of 1968 I had picked John up with Ringo and George in
Ringo’s Mercedes and driven the boys into the office,” Herring recalled in a
statement released by the Sotheby’s auction house.
“When John got out of the car I noticed that he’d left these sunglasses on
the back seat and one lens and one arm had become disconnected. I asked John
if he’d like me to get them fixed for him. He told me not to worry they were
just for the look!”
Herring said he never did get them fixed, and the pair sold for œ137,500
($183,500, 165,000 euros) in an online auction to an unnamed bidder.
The sale included other Fab Four collectibles, including a hippy necklace
with cowbells warn by Harrison, which sold for œ10,000.
“For my family’s sake it makes sense for me to say goodbye to my
collection now while I can still tell all the stories behind everything,”
Herring said.
Lennon was fatally shot by a crazed fan outside his Manhattan apartment
building in 1980 when he was 40, and Harrison died of lung cancer at the age
of 58 in 2001.
BSS/AFP/RY/10:05 hrs