‘SECOND’ WHITE ALBUM MAY HAVE BEEN OWNED BY A BEATLE
THE best things in life are free, or so the Beatles sang.
But one family who owned an ultra-rare copy of a Fab Four album were not about to give it away after they sold it in the Midlands for a cool £24,800.
Their mysterious copy of the so-called White Album has a serial number 0000002. Each record sleeve was individually numbered when the original double LP was released in the UK in 1968.
But the mystery of the album’s provenance deepens as it is widely accepted that the first five albums went to the Beatles themselves and producer George Martin.
If correct it means record could have been owned by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison or Martin. Ringo’s copy was 0000001 and was sold some years ago.
The family who owned the record brought their late relative’s record collection to Dudley’s Special Auction Services’ valuation day and had no idea the album was so rare.
Music specialist David Martin estimated it to be worth between £20,000 and £30,000.
He said: “They emailed me saying they had a collection of Beatles records from a relative who had passed away. I said, ‘great, bring them into our office’ and it was a nice collection. Probably the most famous in terms of rarity was the White Album.
“I saw the top of it and pulled it out and saw the number two. At first I thought, ‘this can’t be right’ as the first five were given to the Beatles and George Martin.
“I looked into it further and I thought it could have been given away by them as they never would have known how valuable it would be now.
“We started bidding at £10,000, got to £19,500 and a bidder on the phone went for £20,000. I think it’s the highest price at a UK auction.
“The buyer is a highly respected British dealer in Beatles rarities. If they can prove it was owned by John Lennon, for example, they could easily double the money.
“The family had absolutely no idea, they knew their relative was a serious collector, he obviously knew what he was doing but he didn’t mention it to them. When they received the collection it just said ‘a box of records’ on it.
“We see numbered ones pretty regularly, but this is the most exciting thing I’ve ever had at auction and I’ve been doing this for six years.
“Number one was Ringo Star’s personal copy and it went to auction in America last year and sold for 750,000 dollars.”