Heritage Auctions has achieved a new world record price for a lock of John Lennon’s hair.
Measuring 4 inches long, the lock was originally snipped from Lennon’s head in 1966 by German barber Klaus Baruck.
Lennon had hair trimmed in preparation for his role as Private Gripweed in Richard Lester’s WWII black comedy ‘How I Won the War’, a performance which also saw him don his famous round spectacles for the first time.
The hair cut proved big new at the times, with Baruck featuring in newspaper articles and even appearing on the CBS TV show ‘I’ve Got a Secret’ as ‘The man who cut John Lennon’s hair’.
The hair remained in the barber’s possession for fifty years, before hitting the auction block in Dallas – where it was snapped up by British Beatles expert and memorabilia dealer Paul Fraser for $35,000.
"This is the largest lock of John Lennon’s hair ever offered at auction" said Garry Shrum, Director of Music Memorabilia at Heritage, "and this world record price is a lasting testament to the world’s more than 50-year love affair and fascination with Lennon and the Beatles."
Also achieving a new record auction price was a copy of The Beatles album ‘Yesterday and Today’, featuring the infamous ‘Butcher’ cover.
Due to the gory nature of the cover photo, which featured the band holding chunks of raw meat and pieces of plastic dolls, most of the albums were recalled to have new covers pasted on them. The few copies which remained unaltered have since become rare collector’s items, and the still-sealed, Gem Mint 10 example offered at Heritage sold for $125,000.
"This is by far one of the finest copies of the very limited number of ‘first state’ albums that were released to a small audience," said Shrum. "This copy is a worthy addition to the most advanced Beatle collections."
Further notable sales of Fab Four memorabilia included a signed photograph of the band performing at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool on December 7, 1963. Described as "the greatest signed Beatles photograph known to exist," it sold for $42,500.
