Lennon’s copy of rarest LP by The Beatles to sell for £750k
THE rarest Beatles record in the world which John Lennon swapped with a fan in return for a bootleg tape has emerged for sale for £750,000.
Lennon exchanged his personal copy of the “Butcher album” with Dave Morrell who had some early Beatles BBC recordings the star desperately wanted.
Not only did Lennon sign the cover of Yesterday And Today, he also drew an original artwork on the back before handing over the incredible piece of memorabilia.
The controversial album cover depicts the Fab Four posing as butchers draped with decapitated babies and chunks of meat.
It caused outrage when it was released in 1966 and Capital Records withdrew it two days later having printed off 750,000.
A handful of original covers survive today and are now prized collectors’ items. Lennon had displayed his on the wall of his New York apartment until he gave it to Mr Morrell in 1971.
Mr Morrell later got the cover signed by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to make it even more rare and valuable.
It has now been put up for sale at auction. It has a conservative estimate of £150,000 but Garry Shrum, of Heritage Auctions, in Dallas, Texas, said the unique cover could sell for as much as £750,000 when it goes under the hammer next Saturday.
Mr Shrum said: “This is easily the rarest Beatles record ever. It truly is a one-of-a-kind.
“It is hard to know what it will sell for because we don’t have anything to gauge it on.
“Ringo Starr’s personal copy of the White Album that was signed by him sold for $900,000, and this is hands down much cooler and rarer.
“Three Beatles autographs are on it, it is an album cover that was withdrawn, there is an original John Lennon artwork on the back and it has wonderful provenance.”