Quick take:
- The physical items are not up for auction.
- More Beatles memorabilia from Julian Lennon’s collection will be rolled out as NFTs over the next year.
- Some NFTs will tie into Julian Lennon’s new album and projects this year.
John Lennon’s son, Julian Lennon, will be releasing rare Beatles memorabilia from his private collection as NFTs. The first items up for auction include John Lennon’s Afghan coat from the Magical Mystery Tour film, his black cape from the 1965 film Help, Paul McCartney’s handwritten notes for ‘Hey Jude’, and three Gibson Les Paul guitars.
The items will be released as an audio/visual collectible, each accompanied by a personal narration from Julian Lennon. Buyers of the NFTs will not own the physical items.
Presented by music NFT marketplace YellowHeart and auction company Julien’s Auctions, Lennon Connection: The NFT Collection will open for bidding on Jan 24. Real-time live bidding for the NFTs will start on Feb 7 at 10am PT in Beverly Hills and on julienslive.com.
According to a Variety exclusive, Julian Lennon said: “I actually felt very bad about keeping all that stuff locked away, and I just felt that this was a unique way to continue dad’s legacy and to show people the collections I have, and with the videos and narration, to give people a little more than they would normally get and hear some stories that they haven’t heard before in a new art form and a different medium.”
The NFTs are a 1/1 digital copy of the physical item. Julian Lennon plans to slowly roll out a series of Beatles-related NFTs over the next year. Like the upcoming first series, the NFTs will be digitalised versions of physical Beatles memorabilia in his collection.
He is working on a number of projects this year, including a new album, which ties into some of the NFTs. “I can’t really say much more — you’ll understand why when it happens. The first release will be April 8 and that will inform you of the campaign going forward,” he tells Variety.
To offset the environmental impact of NFTs, part of the proceeds from the sale will go to Lennon’s White Feather Foundation, which is a non-profit that raises funds for environmental and humanitarian issues.
The non-profit will use the NFT proceeds to buy carbon removal from Nori. Some of Nori’s clients in the NFT space include Rarible, The Sandbox, and Shopify. For transparency, the White Feather Foundation will publicise the Nori certificate of carbon removal, which contains information on the carbon removal transaction.
Julien’s Auction has previously sold physical John Lennon’s guitar and Ringo’s drum kit and drum head for more than $2 million each, as well as Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for ‘Hey Jude’ for $910,000. Through its collaboration with YellowHearts, this NFT auction will be its first foray into the NFT space.
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