A guitar once owned by John Lennon – which mysteriously disappeared in 1963 – has been located and will be auctioned in November.
Lennon’s 1962 Gibson guitar was used on many of the Beatles’ early hits like Love Me Do, I Want to Hold Your Hand and She Loves You. It went missing in the UK in the early 60s and somehow found its way to San Diego.
An amateur guitarist called John McCaw purchased the item for a few hundred dollars in the 1970s, unaware of its heritage, and was only made aware of its similarity to the famous instrument when friends spotted the J-160E Gibson in a book by Andy Babiuk, a Beatles expert who authenticates the band’s memorabilia. It is now estimated to fetch between $600,000 and $800,000 at the auction house, which is in Los Angeles.
Babiuk, who regularly gets approached by people who claim to own Beatles instruments and “99% of the time it’s nothing”, said he didn’t make much of McCaw’s guitar at first.
However, the guitar, which remained totally unaltered by McCaw, has the matching serial number to the artist’s original. This caught Babiuk’s attention, and after analysing the wood grain, eventually discovered that it was the same as the lost 60s instrument.
Before it is sold, fans will be able to see the lost artefact at two exhibitions this summer, first at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas and then at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles from 2 July. The guitar gets its public display at Julien’s Auctions from 2 November before its auction on 6 and 7 November.
Darren Julien, of Julien’s Auctions, said there still haven’t been any explanations for the guitar’s disappearance.
