Drawings and writings by Beatle John Lennon flew off a New York auction block on June 4, with some fetching four to five times their estimated worth.
Sotheby’s — which held the sale — had described the often very simple ink sketches and pieces of prose as “the most extensive collection of John Lennon’s original artwork, autograph manuscripts and corrected typescripts ever to come to auction.”
And that appeared to motivate buyers, who snapped up the 89 lots on offer in just two hours.
Photo: EPA
照片:歐新社
Estimated to be worth US$850,000 to US$1.2 million, the pieces ended up pulling in US$2.9 million — including 25 percent in buyer fees, an amount not included in value projections.
That put a smile on auctioneer Benjamin Doller’s face as he brought down the hammer after the sale of the last piece.
The items comprise the original material that appeared in two books by Lennon — In His Own Write, published five decades ago this year, and A Spaniard in the Works, which hit the best-seller lists in 1965.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透
At times handwritten, at times typed up, they came from the private collection of London publisher Tom Maschler, creator of the Booker Prize.
Before becoming a musician, Lennon was known for his love of drawing. Already as a Liverpool schoolboy, he stood out not for being a stellar student but for the funny comics he created.
The most expensive piece to be auctioned off — a nine-page, handwritten manuscript titled The Singular Experience of Miss Anne Duffield with an estimated worth of US$50,000 to US$70,000 — went for US$209,000, fees included.
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
A poem, The Fat Budgie, three pages written in green ink whose pre-sale estimate was between US$25,000 and US$35,000, went under the hammer for US$143,000.
Many drawings surpassed the US$30,000 mark. The last to hit the auction block, featuring a four-eyed guitar player, garnered US$109,375. Its estimated worth prior to the sale was US$15,000 to US$25,000.
A drawing of a young boy and six birds that appeared in A Spaniard in the Works and that served as a cover for the Free as a Bird single Lennon wrote in 1977, fetched US$27,500 — almost twice its maximum estimated value of US$12,000 to US$15,000.
Lennon, a founding member of the Beatles, was murdered in New York in December 1980 at the age of 40, three weeks after the release of his last album Double Fantasy, a collaboration with his wife Yoko Ono.
(AFP)
披頭四團員約翰‧藍儂創作的繪畫與手稿六月四日在紐約的拍賣會上以迅雷不及掩耳的速度被一掃而空,有些拍品甚至以比預期價值多出四到五倍的高價拍出。
負責這次拍賣的蘇富比形容,這些非常簡單水墨素描和散文篇章為「約翰‧藍儂至今最大規模藝術原作、簽名手稿與修改過打字稿等收藏品的拍賣。」
這次拍賣物件似乎頗受買家青睞,八十九件拍品在兩小時內被一搶而空。
估值從八十五萬美元到一百二十萬美元不等,最後拍出總額達兩百九十萬美元,此金額包含估值所未納入的百分之二十五買家佣金。
這讓拍賣官班傑明‧達樂在最後一項拍品落槌時,笑得開懷。
拍品包括藍儂兩本著作的原始材料:一本是一九六四年出版的《藍儂自書》及一九六五年暢銷書《作品裡的西班牙人》。
有些是手寫、有些是打字機稿,這些書稿來自布克獎創辦人、倫敦出版商湯姆‧馬許勒的私家收藏。
尚未成為音樂家之前,藍儂是以喜愛繪畫著稱。當他還是位利物浦的學齡男孩時,他並不是以成績優異脫穎而出,反而是因為他創作的搞笑漫畫。
這場拍賣會上最昂貴的作品是九頁《安妮‧杜費德小姐的特異經歷》手稿,估值為五萬到七萬美元,最後以包含佣金的二十萬九千美元拍出。
一首用綠色墨水筆寫的三頁《肥胖的虎皮鸚鵡》打油詩,估值為兩萬五千美元到三萬五千美元,最後以十四萬三千美元落槌。
許多畫品皆以超過三萬美元的門檻拍出。最後一幅上拍賣台的畫作是「一位四眼吉他手」,以十萬九千三百七十五美元拍出。拍賣前的估值為一萬五千美元到兩萬五千美元。
一幅出現在《作品裡的西班牙人》以及《自由如鳥》單曲封面的「一名年輕男孩與六隻鳥兒」畫作,以兩萬七千五百美元拍出,這是其最高鑑價一萬兩千美元到一萬五千美元的兩倍之多。
這位披頭四的創始團員藍儂,在與其妻子小野洋子合出一張其生平最後專輯《雙重幻想》的三週後,於一九八0年在紐約遭槍殺去世,享年四十歲。
(法新社/翻譯:林亞蒂)
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