Signed Beatles photo and Sex Pistols lyrics sell for more than £130,000
RR Auction’s Marvels of Modern Music sale achieved a total of 1,132,981 dollars (£904,178) with several notable items.
A signed Beatles photograph and a sheet of handwritten lyrics by Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon have sold at auction for more £65,000 each.
The signed picture of the Fab Four on-stage, which was for their 1964 Australian tour promoter, had an estimate of 40,000 dollars (£31,922), but it exceeded expectations by selling for 83,278 dollars (£66,462).
RR Auction’s Marvels of Modern Music sale also saw the sheet of original working lyrics by Lydon, known as Johnny Rotten, go under the hammer for 82,638 dollars (£65,952) after an estimate of 80,000 dollars (£63,844).
They sheet was previously exhibited at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame between 1996 to 2000, and was shown at London’s Hospital Exhibition in 2004 and Manchester’s Urbis exhibition.
The manuscript includes a certificate of authenticity from punk historian Jon Savage.
Executive vice president at RR Auction Bobby Livingston said: “The music auction marketplace is currently very strong, and this sale proves the enduring power of the Sex Pistols and the cultural revolution they ignited.
“Blue-chip punk items are being purchased by collectors whose lives were transformed by the power of this music.”
Another signed photo of the British rock band from around mid-1963 went for 26,575 dollars (£21,208), while a first pressing of the Beatles’ debut single Love Me Do and PS I Love You, signed the day after its release, went for 24,079 dollars (£19,216).
