John Lennon with his 1962 Gibson guitar.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A guitar stolen from the late John Lennon in the 1960s sold
for $2.41 million on Saturday at an auction in California and a Beatles drum head
went for $2.1 million, fetching some of the highest prices ever for items of rock
and roll memorabilia. Auctioneer Darren Julien said the 1962 J-160E Gibson
acoustic guitar had for decades been in the possession of John McCaw, a
novice musician who bought it in the late 1960s without knowing it had been
stolen from the legendary Beatle several years before.

Half of the proceeds from the sale of the guitar, which was stolen from Lennon at
a December 1963 Christmas concert, will go toward the Spirit Foundation, a
charitable organization that he and his widow, Yoko Ono, created.