“beatles 4” by beatles maniac11 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

John Lennon’s 1960s-era guitar has sold at auction for $2.85 million. The 12-string acoustic known as “Hootenanny” was lost for 50 years and only recently resurfaced in the attic of a rural British home, leading to the historic sale. An instrument featured on albums such as Rubber Soul and Help, Lennon’s guitar was the subject of barter and ultimately a historic sale on Wednesday, May 20, at Los Angeles-based Julien’s Auctions. 

According to the auction house, “Hootenanny” is a German-manufactured instrument made by Framus. It last appeared in a Beatles setting circa 1965, on the Fab Four’s previously mentioned albums and subsequent films. Reportedly, Lennon gifted the instrument to a member of Peter & Gordon, Gordon Waller, who passed it to his road manager, who took the instrument to his countryside home and, somewhere down the line, stored it in the attic and forgot about it. 

Decades later, a British man discovered the guitar in his parents’ attic, as told by Darren Julien, co-founder of Julien’s Auctions, in a video regarding the sale, which was initially shared in March (ahead of the auction). To legitimize the instrument’s famous past, the auction house enlisted the help of Beatles memorabilia authentication expert Andy Babiuk, who verified the claim by comparing the wood grain, wear patterns, and archival images. 

The instrument is one of the highest-gross auctioned instruments to date, following previous Beatles-related sales such as Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit, which sold for $2.2 million, and another acoustic guitar, once owned by Lennon, sold for $2.4 million.