KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — The Grammy statue unwanted by Beatle member John Lennon is expected to fetch US$500,000 (RM2.3 million) when it is put up for auction.
The golden gramophone was one of four that was given to Lennon and his band members by the Grammy Trustees Award in 1972 to “individuals who, during their careers in music, technology, and so on have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording”.
However, Lennon snubbed the award and told the then Grammy president “I’m not a Beatle anymore, you can keep it”, TMZ reported.
Fifty years down the road, the award will now be auctioned by the Gotta Have Rock and Roll, a music memorabilia-based auction house.
According to the portal, the award had been kept by one of Lennon’s close friends, who was a former head of Apple Records, after the star rejected it.
Besides the unwanted Grammy, a 14-carat gold and diamond money clip owned by King of Rock & Roll Elvis Presley and a 2004 demo CD from Taylor Swift will go under the block.
Daily Mail reported that the statuette is mounted on a wood base with an inscribed plaque affixed to it reading, ‘National Academy Of Recording Artists And Sciences, National Trustees Awards 1972, To, The Beatles, John Lennon’.
Lennon was just 40 years old when he was gunned down and killed by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980, while he and wife Yoko One were walking back into their New York City home late at night.
