Authenticity is Everything
Lennon-Ono signed Grapefruit book - Same sigs on two different items.
Lot 231 in Gotta Have it's current auction claims to be the sheet music from "Imagine' signed by Lennon/Ono.
https://www.gottahaverockandroll.com/John_Lennon___Yoko_Ono_Signed_...
Same exact signatures that were on a Grapefruit book from a previous Gotta Have it auction. (See Photo)
The sheet music was offered at Sotheby's last year but was withdrawn when they were made aware of this.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by BallroomDays67 on
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The auction description is misleading because those are before and after pics. The page was removed from the book and overprinted with the sheet music.
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Permalink Reply by Bruce Juice on
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Can you explain what exactly "overprinting" is and how you can tell?
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It’s when something such as sheet music is printed on a page that has already been signed. I recall seeing the same thing with Macca signed Yesterday sheet music. If you look closely at Yoko’s signature, you can see spots where the ink intersects in which the black ink was printed over the blue ink.
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Permalink Reply by Raul Serrano on
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I agree with you; I think the source of the confusion is the description itself and the before-and-after images.
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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on
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Awful...destroying history.
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Permalink Reply by JDZelenka on
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An interesting case of trying to boost the value of an item by retrospectively associating the signatures with something notable from the subject's past. Similar (but not as bad) examples I have seen involve taking a Churchill signature on a card and then typing out one of his famous quotes on it. I have also seen plain Neil Armstrong signatures where someone has added after the famous "One small step" line. As for me, I would not want a piece that has been manipulated like this. Why not just frame the open book with a nice Imagine image? Perhaps the worst case was when a set of 1967 Beatles signatures on yellow paper were cleverly grafted onto the gatefold of Sgt Pepper.
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Yesterday I wrote to the auction house to warn them, and I also requested an email address to send them the evidence. So far, I haven't received a response. This is one of the images I will attach.
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From this overlay, you can clearly see that they are the same exact signatures. Hopefully the auction house will either clarify the listing or remove the item as John and Yoko never signed it. I've only seen one other signed lyrics by John -- done at the WFIL signing. Anyone have any other examples?
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Permalink Reply by fab432 on
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I just sent the auction house this question. Did John and Yoko personally sign this piece of sheet music? The answer came back -“Yes”. Now that was quite disappointing. Perhaps others could ask the same question and then we can send them the pics of the overlay.
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I have received mail and they tell me this:
"It's a souvenir sheet of music, as per the description.
The item is still live signed, and it hasn't been copied, something has just been printed over, a standard practice in autographs.
20% of the 8 x 10 signed photographs are just blank photos that become printed over
"Dylan"
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Here’s another one that was sold through Gotta Have Rock and Roll. It sold for $7,500 including BP.
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