John Lennon sketches fetch £25,000

5:39am Thursday 24th July 2008

A signed exhibition catalogue by John Lennon containing risque sketches he drew of his wife Yoko Ono in the late 1960s has fetched £25,000 at auction.

Lennon signed the catalogue for his exhibition entitled the Bag One for American journalist Sandra Shevey when she interviewed him and Ono in New York in 1972.

Lennon's original drawings from the catalogue were seized by Scotland Yard officers when shown in London in January 1970 on the second day of their exhibition because of their erotic nature.

They were a gift to his wife and celebrate their wedding, honeymoon and their plea for world peace in what became their notorious "bed-in" held in a bedroom of the Amsterdam Hilton.

British antiques dealer and Beatles devotee Tony Barnes, who lives in Spain, bought the exhibition catalogue signed by both Lennon and Ono at Gorringes auction house in Lewes, East Sussex.

Mr Barnes said: "I come from that era and Lennon is one of the most famous names in the world as well as being a pioneer of modern music. I have bought it to share with my children."

Shevey, whose interviewees have included Alfred Hitchcock, Dustin Hoffman and Liza Minnelli, interviewed Lennon and Ono for 12 hours at their New York apartment in 1972 and it became the basis for her book, the Other Side of Lennon, published in 1990.

Ms Shevey now lives in London and runs guided walks across the capital including a John Lennon-themed tour of his favourite haunts in the city.

Speaking of the sale, she said: "I'm over the moon."

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