No ticket to ride for Lennon car

Lennon's made-to-order limousine took five months to complete

LONDON, England -- A white limousine ordered to mark the start of former Beatle John Lennon's solo career has failed to reach its reserve price in an Internet auction.

The Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman was expected to fetch up to $575,000 in Tuesday's rock memorabilia sale, while Lennon's piano from his apartment in New York was expected to sell for $1.25 million.

But the car fell more than $14,000 short of its reserve price of $287,000, while the piano was more than $400,000 short of its $1.44 million reserve.

Auction specialist Ted Owen said he was particularly disappointed that the piano failed to reach its reserve price as all proceeds were going to a breast cancer charity.

But he added: "I still think there is a sale to be had and there is a possibility of a deal being done privately.

"There is no hint of the bottom falling out of the Beatles memorabilia market."

Owen and Mick Fleetwood, drummer with the multi-million selling rock group Fleetwood Mac, have joined forces to organise "Rock Legend" sales.

Their latest auction was opened two weeks ago on their Web site -- www.fleetwoodowen.com -- and ended on Tuesday at the Hard Rock Cafe in London -- itself a leading buyer of rock souvenirs.

Lennon ordered the car after the release of the Beatles' Abbey Road album in 1969, and insisted that a radio and record player were installed five months before the vehicle's final delivery on February 19, 1970.

When Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono moved to the U.S. in 1973, he sold the car to former band member George Harrison, who then re-sold it to Mary Wilson of the Supremes in 1975.

In 1989 Finnish collector Mikael Borgman bought the car, which had taken a beating over the last few years and decided to restore it.

He sourced the car's components to Germany and even rebuilt an old glass-manufacturing machine to produce replica windows.

Borgman's $286,000 renovation is thought to be the most expensive operation carried out by Mercedes for an independent customer.

Owen and Fleetwood joined forces last October to auction the Steinway piano Lennon used to write Imagine. It was bought by singer George Michael for $2.1 million.

The piano being offered on Tuesday was kept by Lennon in his New York apartment for the last seven years of his life. He was gunned down outside the apartment building, known as the Dakota, in 1980 by a crazed fan.

"The 'Double Fantasy' album was probably written on it. He never went out of the building for five years and we assume a lot of work was done on this piano," Owen said.

"It was put up for sale in a competition by Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1984 to promote one of Yoko's albums. A lady from the American Midwest won it. The present owner (who prefers to remain anonymous) bought it off her."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Former Beatle turns poet
March 22, 2001
Damning verdict on Lennon's art
January 26, 2001
Memorials worldwide for John Lennon
December 8, 2000
Early Lennon years chronicled in NBC movie
Decemner 1, 2000
Can't buy me love? How about some Beatles stuff?
December 7, 2000

John Lennon
Hard Rock Cafe
The Beatles
Fleetwood Owen

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.