Because the copies of the album were numbered in sequence, the buyer of Ringo’s edition can claim they own the first ever printed copy of the iconic album, which is considered by some critics to be among the best records ever made.
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It’s the same drum kit he played during 200 concerts and on most of the band’s earliest hits such as “Can’t Buy Me Love”, and “I Want to Hold your Hand”, said Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions.
The auction house said the White Album sale smashed a record set in 2015, when Elvis Presley’s first acetate recording sold at auction for $300,000. Irsay is a “well-known Beatles fanatic”, reports The Rolling Stone Magazine on December 6.
“Also up during the three-day sale that ran Thurdsday through Saturday were a 1964 Rickenbacker electric guitar that Lennon later gave to Starr, which sold for $910,000, and a 1962 Gretsch ‘Chet Atkins” Tennessean guitar that had belonged to George Harrison, and given to Starr by Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and their son, Dhani, after Harrison’s death in 2001.
“Finally, after 45 years, the Beatles are together again”, Irsay said in a text message to The Associated Press.
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Starr is donating part of the proceeds from the auction to a charity he founded. The auction featured more than 800 items owned by the former Beatle and his wife, actress Barbara Bach. According to its website, “the objectives of the Lotus Foundation are to fund, support, participate in and promote charitable projects aimed at advancing social welfare in diverse areas including, but not limited to substance abuse, cerebral palsy, brain tumours, cancer, battered women and their children, homelessness, animals in need”.
