During the media preview of part of Julien’s Auctions’ “Lennon Connection: The NFT Collection” auction featuring prized Beatles and John Lennon memorabilia from Julian Lennon’s private collection, on Jan 25, 2022, an NFT (non-fungible token) of John Lennon’s “Magical Mystery Tour” Afghan coat and a print of Paul McCartney’s “Hey Jude” notes are seen.
The latest hammer price success for NFTs was a virtual reproduction of the handwritten notes for the tune “Hey Jude” that sold for approximately $77,000 (2.5 million baht) at an auction in California.
The Fab Four’s hit, originally named “Hey Jules,” was composed by Paul McCartney in 1968 to console a young Julian Lennon during his father John’s split from his mother, Cynthia.
The NFT version of the notes was presented as an animation with voice commentary by John Lennon junior, in which the words were gradually imprinted on the paper.
“For me, just looking at a picture is not enough if I was a buyer,” Lennon earlier told AFP in Los Angeles.
“So I wanted to add something a little more personal. And for me, that was writing and narrating a little bit of story that would be behind the images.”
Julien’s Auctions also sold an NFT of his father’s Afghan coat used on the set of “Magical Mystery Tour,” which sold for $22,400.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are one-of-a-kind digital items that impart ownership.
While their content is easily copied, the NFT is “the original,” similar to how there are numerous prints of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” but only the Louvre museum holds the original.
In recent months, investors and affluent collectors have flocked to the latest digital fad, which is based on the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies and cannot be falsified or otherwise manipulated.
NFTs have fetched record-breaking prices at recent auctions, including $69.3 million for a digital work by artist Beeple at Christie’s.