The ballad of John and Yoko’s burgled wedding photos
THEY are some of the most intimate images ever taken of John and Yoko. In one portrait, the couple are pictured at their secret wedding in Gibraltar in 1969. In another, they happily nestle together in the back of a limo following the ceremony.
Others show the newlyweds, both wearing white, looking relaxed on a private jet at the end of the wedding saga that would later be immortalised in hit song The Ballad Of John And Yoko.
Yet they are among the most controversial pictures, too. For as John Lennon’s widow prepares to mark the anniversary of her wedding to the late Beatle next Sunday, The Mail on Sunday can reveal these exclusive images are a source of anguish that has distressed her for decades.
As the photographer explains, they are at the heart of a long-running mystery after vanishing in an apparent burglary. And despite the best efforts of detectives, have not been seen since. Until now – because an MoS investigation tracked down the negatives for the 118 missing pictures, estimated to be worth more than €100,000, and discovered them being touted for sale by a notorious Beatles biographer. .
Geoffrey Giuliano offered to sell the negatives to our undercover reporter, who was posing as a collector. After sending over the contact sheet as proof that he had the negatives, Giuliano demanded a cash transfer into his account – but then n pulled out of the e deal after suspect- ing the buyer was s acting for Ono.
He raised further r questions about the e legitimacy of the e sale by claiming the original photographer is dead. However, David Nutter is very much alive and, when contacted by the MoS, was furious to learn his images were being sold without his permission. Speaking from his New York home, he said: ‘It’s heartbreaking. It was the most important assignment for me… I’m so angry.’
It was just a few months before the release of the Beatles’ album Abbey Road when David, then 30, was summoned by the band’s Apple Corps executive Peter Brown and dispatched on ‘a top secret mission’. David had become part of the Fab Four’s trusted inner circle thanks to his brother Tommy, who was tailor to the band.
David recalled: ‘He asked me to get on the next flight to Gibraltar. But he wouldn’t tell me why. He just told me to take my camera.’
Desperate to avoid the London paparazzi, Lennon and Ono wanted to seal their nuptials in a private ceremony. After failing to do so on a cross-channel ferry and in Paris, they were advised to do it in Gibraltar, where, as a British citizen, Lennon could wed immediately.
‘The ceremony was short,’ said David. ‘They let me do whatever I wanted. The important picture would be in the registry office. Them standing there and doing the vows.’ Yet the remarkable coup turned to disaster in 1975 when David loaned his negatives to Anthony Fawcett, an ex-assistant to Lennon, to be used in Fawcett’s book John Lennon: One Day At A Time.
‘When I asked for the negatives back, he told me his apartment had been repossessed and everything had been taken,’ said David. The story later changed and he was told there had been a burglary.
Acting on a tip-off that the negatives had turned up for sale, our reporter contacted Giuliano, 62, a US author based in Thailand who is known to have a vast collection of Beatles memorabilia.
Giuliano said he’d been instructed to sell the negatives on behalf of a friend but, after sending our reporter the contact sheets, said he wanted $8,000 – way below their estimated six-figure value. But the deal soured when Giuliano suspected our reporter was acting for Ono and refused to sell them before launching into a vile tirade against her.
Ono, who is said to be upset by the theft of the images, declined to comment. Giuliano responded to an MoS request for a comment with an obscenity.
‘I’m heartbroken, it was a top secret assignment’