A guitar once owned by John Lennon and which mysteriously went missing 50 years ago is expected to fetch up to $800,000 (£525,000) at auction.
The Beatles icon’s 1962 Gibson J-160E acoustic was used to write smash hits Love Me Do, I Want To Hold Your Hand and She Loves You before going missing in the UK in 1963.
It somehow made its way to San Diego in the US where it was bought for a few hundred dollars by John McCaw. According to the Guardian, McCaw only discovered the guitar’s heritage when a friend saw it in a book by Beatles expert Andy Babiuk.
It goes up for sale at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles in November, after being put on display at exhibitions in Austin, Texas, and in LA. The auction house expects it to fetch between $600,000 and $800,000.
Darren Julien of the auction house says there has been no explanation given for the guitar’s original disappearance.
Last year, a guitar owned by George Harrison sold at auction for $657,000 (£430,000).
