George Harrison guitar sells for record-breaking price
The Futurama guitar bought by a teenage George Harrison for Stg58 ($A112) has sold for more than Stg1 million ($A1.9 million) at auction.
The late Beatles star’s mother paid for the Resonet Futurama instrument in 1959 when he was a 16-year-old apprentice electrician.
Harrison played the instrument at more than 320 Beatles gigs across the years and it has now gone under the hammer for $A1.9 million.
Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions – which sold John Lennon’s acoustic guitar for $US2.85 million ($A4.38 million) earlier this year – said the lot had set a world record for the highest sale price of one of Harrison’s instruments.
“George Harrison’s iconic Futurama guitar, one of the most important guitars in rock and roll history and formative to The Beatles’ sound, has made history at today’s auction,” he said in a statement.
“We’re beyond thrilled to add this Harrison guitar to the Julien’s Auctions’ million-dollar club, which already includes guitars from John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Kurt Cobain.”
The auction house had given the guitar an expected sale price of between $US600,000 ($A923,077) and $US800,000 ($A1.2 million) and celebrated its significance in Beatles history when they first announced it was going up for sale.
“George Harrison’s Futurama guitar was The Beatles’ north star and one of his most loved instruments in his collection of legendary and prized guitars,” Nolan said at the time.
“This mythic guitar aptly named Futurama was played during the early Beatles’ countless groundbreaking performances from their halcyon nights at the Cavern Club in Liverpool to their famous Hamburg Days where they honed their sound and style and the future of Beatlemania literally took off.”
It had previously failed to sell after it didn’t meet its reserve price when it was put up for auction by Bonhams in 2019.
#George #Harrison #guitar #sells #recordbreaking #price