Music Beatles guitar fetches over a million dollars at auction

A guitar that was one of Beatles guitarist George Harrison's favorite instruments at the beginning of his music career has been sold at auction in the USA. According to the auction house Julien's, the highest bid of one million US dollars was received by telephone.

With commission, the sale price was 1.27 million dollars. The previous estimate was between 600,000 and 800,000 dollars.

Harrison, who died in 2001, made music history with the "Futurama" electric guitar he bought in Liverpool in 1959. According to Julien's, it was Harrison's most-used guitar in the Beatles' early years. According to Beatles expert Andy Babiuk, Harrison used the instrument at over 324 gigs, including the Hamburg gigs of the "mushroom heads" in the early 1960s.

The electric guitar, which was auctioned off with its worn original guitar case, went under the hammer during a two-day auction in the country stronghold of Nashville in the US state of Tennessee. More than 1,000 pieces of music memorabilia were on offer, including former possessions of Prince, Eric Clapton, Freddie Mercury, Johnny Cash, Katy Perry and Madonna.

SDA