Who would have imagined? John Lennon’s glasses find home in Tel Aviv
“There are UFOs over New York, and I’m not too surprised,” former Beatle John Lennon sang in his posthumously released song, “Nobody Told Me.”
The lyric was a reminder that Lennon shared an interest in Unidentified Flying Objects — and a friendship — with Israeli-British psychic and spoon-bender Uri Geller.
Now, a pair of Lennon’s iconic blue-tinted glasses are headed to Israel, after Geller bought them at auction last week for $51,000. He plans to display them in his Geller’s Tel Aviv museum, next to an “alien egg” that he received as a gift from the singer.
“John Lennon and I were very good friends while we were living in New York in the 1970s,” Geller told the BBC. “I knew I had to buy these glasses whatever. I would have gone up to £500,000.”
Lennon gave the glasses to a man — identified as Michael, a resident of Surrey — as a birthday present, according to Catherine Southon Auctions. The auction house said Lennon gave them to Michael at Abbey Road Studios in 1968, when he and his girlfriend were invited to the studio on Michael’s birthday.
According to the auction house as quoted in the Guardian, Michael said: “I picked up a pair of glasses from a piano. Penny said: ‘Don’t touch.’” But “John Lennon turned around and said, ‘He’s all right. In fact, he can have them. Happy birthday!’”
Michael noted: “They are not John Lennon’s prescription glasses, but he gave them to me and wished me happy birthday, so that is good enough for me.”
“John changed my life as that’s where I learned about spirituality,” Geller told the BBC, noting his “amazing connection” with the musician, who was murdered in 1980.
“He believed in UFOs and I believed in UFOs and he was fascinated by my alien collection,” he said.
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