Specialized auctioneer Julien’s Auctions was supposed to organize its previously set auction of The Beatles memorabilia at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe, but when the coronavirus hit, the auction was organized online-only, possibly with fears that it might not go so well.
Instead, as it turns out, as The Guardian reports, it fetched some incredible sums of money. The clear top sale was Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to “Hey Jude,” one of The Beatles’ most popular songs. They fetched an incredible sum of $910,000.
Julien’s music specialist Jason Watkins said that “it’s obviously a very iconic song that everyone’s familiar with. These handwritten lyrics were used in the studio as a guide when they were recording it.”
But that’s not to say that some other items (there were 250 on offer) at this auction fetched poorly. As The Guardian adds, a vintage bass drumhead with The Beatles’ logo that was used during the English band’s first North American tour in 1964 was another top item in the auction, selling for $200,000.
A drawing by John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono called Bagism, a term they coined to satirize stereotyping, sold for $93,750, while an ashtray used by the Fab Four’s drummer Ringo Starr at the Abbey Road recording studios in London fetched $32,500. Also, the wooden stage of the small Liverpool venue where the band performed before they rocketed to fame went for $25,600.
