Rediscovered John Lennon Guitar Heads to Auction, Expected to Set Records
3 min
Lost for decades, an acoustic guitar John Lennon used at the height of the Beatles’ fame is going up for auction after being found in the attic of a home in the British countryside.
The 1965 Framus Hootenanny is arguably one of the most historically important guitars in the history of the Beatles, and was used on some of the group’s classic songs and played by Lennon in the movie Help! , released the same year.
The 12-string acoustic guitar will headline Julien’s Auctions Music Icons event on May 29 and 30 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, the auction house announced Tuesday morning in London.
Darren Julien, the firm’s co-founder and executive director, expects the Framus to exceed its presale estimate of between US$600,000 and US$800,000 and says it could set a new record for the highest-selling Beatles guitar, a record his auction house set nearly a decade ago.
Rupert Hitchcox/Julien’s auctions
“Julien’s sold a John Lennon [Gibson J-160E] guitar in 2015 for US$2.4 million, and because this, historically speaking, is a more significant guitar, our expectation is that this guitar—played by John Lennon and George Harrison on the Help! album and other recordings—will be in the top five most expensive guitars ever sold at auction,” Julien says. “It’s likely the last chance for someone to buy and personally own an iconic John Lennon/George Harrison guitar.”
While equating its discovery to that of a “lost Rembrandt or Picasso,” Julien believes this is the greatest find of a Beatles guitar since Paul McCartney ’s lost 1961 Höfner bass, which was returned to him in February after it had been stolen in 1972.
The rediscovered Framus was famously seen in the 1965 film Help! , and was used in recording sessions for classics such as “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” “It’s Only Love” and “I’ve Just Seen A Face.” It was also played by George Harrison on the rhythm track for “Norwegian Wood” on the 1966 album Rubber Soul .
According to the auction house, by the late-1960s the guitar was in the possession of Gordon Waller of the British pop duo Peter & Gordon, who later gave it to their road managers. The instrument was recently discovered in an attic in rural Britain where it sat forgotten and unplayed for more than 50 years. After finding the guitar in the midst of a move, the homeowners contacted Julien’s.
Along with co-founder Martin Nolan, Julien traveled to the U.K. and immediately recognised that it was the storied Help! guitar. While on the premises, they also discovered the original guitar case in the trash and rescued it. It’s an Australian-made Maton case that can be seen in photos taken of The Beatles in 1965 The sale of the guitar is accompanied by the case and a copy of the book The Beatles: Photographs From The Set of Help by Emilo Lari.
In addition to Lennon’s acoustic Gibson J-160E—which fetched three times its presale estimate—Julien’s has broken multiple Beatles records, including Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit (which sold for US$2.2 million), the drumhead played on the Ed Sullivan Show (US$2.2 million), and a personal copy of the White Album , (US$790,000), all of which sold in 2015.
Julien’s also holds the record for the world’s most expensive guitar ever sold at auction: Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic electric guitar, which sold in 2020 for US$6 million.
More than 1,000 pieces of music memorabilia will also be part of the auction, including items used by the likes of AC/DC, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Judas Priest, Heart, Queen, and Tupac Shakur.
Sartorial highlights include custom dresses worn by Tina Turner (Versace) and Amy Winehouse (Fendi), both of which are expected to sell for between US$4,000 and $6,000, and Michael Jackson’s stage-worn “Billie Jean” jacket from 1984’s Victory Tour (presale estimate: US$80,000 to $100,000).
Bidders will have the chance to buy items benefitting a pair of U.K. charities. Several collectibles from The Who and other British musicians will be sold to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust, and an assortment of memorabilia—ranging from a Stella McCartney dress worn by Helen Mirren and an Armani jacket stage-worn by Phil Collins to artwork created and signed by Pierce Brosnan—will be offered to help fund the King’s Trust.
Rounding out the two-day auction is Randy Bachman’s collection of more than 200 museum-quality guitars. Known for his role in The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the Canadian rock star used the instruments on hits such as “These Eyes,” “Takin’ Care of Business,” “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” and “American Woman.”
The public can view the Help! guitar and other auction highlights at Hard Rock Cafes in London (April 23-29) and New York City (May 22-28).
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
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Technology and semiconductor shares fell sharply as investors questioned the debt financing the AI infrastructure boom and confronted higher rates and Chinese competition.
Technology and semiconductor shares fell sharply as investors questioned the debt financing the AI infrastructure boom and confronted higher rates and Chinese competition.
4 minA sharp technology sell-off has exposed a new anxiety on global markets: whether the enormous borrowing behind the artificial-intelligence infrastructure boom can generate sufficient returns as interest rates rise and Chinese competition intensifies.
The artificial-intelligence investment boom has powered technology shares, semiconductor manufacturers and data-centre operators to extraordinary heights. Last week, investors were given a reminder that much of this expansion is being built with borrowed money.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 4.5 per cent over the week ended October 16, its weakest performance since late June. Semiconductor shares suffered an even deeper correction, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index losing about 11.4 per cent.
The selling spread quickly through global markets. Micron Technology fell 14.6 per cent over the week, while South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix dropped approximately 18 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.
This was more than a routine bout of profit-taking. Investors were reassessing three interconnected risks: higher interest rates, the rapidly expanding debt burden attached to AI infrastructure and the prospect of stronger competition from Chinese memory-chip manufacturers.
The debt behind the AI build-out
Artificial intelligence requires a physical infrastructure network of enormous scale. Data centres must be built, advanced processors purchased, power supplies secured and cooling systems installed before customers begin generating meaningful revenue from them.
Technology companies are increasingly supplementing their own cash with corporate bonds, syndicated loans, equipment leases, private credit and project-level financing.
JPMorgan describes the emerging funding model as a combination of conventional corporate borrowing and project finance tied to individual data-centre assets. In Australia, the Reserve Bank estimates that syndicated loans accounted for approximately three-quarters of data-centre financing during 2025 and 2026 to date.
The numbers are becoming large enough to affect broader credit markets. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has cited Wall Street estimates suggesting AI-related investment-grade bond issuance could approach US$300 billion in 2026 alone.
That borrowing is not automatically problematic. Debt can be an efficient way to finance long-lived infrastructure when future revenue is sufficiently predictable. The concern is that AI technology, customer demand and computing economics are changing much faster than the repayment schedules attached to the assets.
A data centre financed today may carry debt for years. Investors must therefore make assumptions about future utilisation rates, electricity prices, chip performance, customer concentration and the amount businesses will ultimately pay for AI computing.
When interest rates rise, those assumptions become less forgiving.
Inflation changes the calculation
September’s US inflation data intensified the pressure. Consumer prices increased 3.7 per cent over the year, ahead of market expectations and up from 3.4 per cent in August.
The hotter reading reduced confidence that interest rates would fall quickly and pushed bond yields higher. That matters particularly for companies whose valuations depend on profits expected well into the future, as well as highly leveraged infrastructure operators that may need to refinance.
CoreWeave has emerged as a closely watched test case. The specialist cloud-computing company has accumulated substantial debt and lease obligations to build AI capacity, while relying on a concentrated group of large technology customers.
Its shares fell sharply during the sell-off, while the cost of insuring its debt against default climbed. CoreWeave has argued that its contracted backlog more than covers its obligations and that financial markets do not always understand its business model. Nevertheless, its securities have become a proxy for investor confidence in debt-funded AI infrastructure.
Oracle, another major investor in AI computing capacity, fell 8.8 per cent in Friday trading, while CoreWeave dropped 15.5 per cent.
The question is shifting from how much AI infrastructure can be built to how profitably it can be operated.
China adds another source of pressure
Interest rates were not the only catalyst. Reports of advances by Chinese memory-chip producer ChangXin Memory Technologies raised concerns that lower-cost Chinese products could increase competition across the global semiconductor industry.
Memory chips are essential to AI systems, but the industry is historically cyclical. Periods of tight supply and high pricing can encourage rapid investment, eventually producing oversupply and falling margins.
The prospect of a well-funded Chinese competitor expanding its technological capabilities unsettled investors in Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. It also demonstrated that AI-related demand does not insulate chipmakers from conventional competitive pressures.
That combination—slower rate cuts, more expensive financing and potentially cheaper supply—challenged the assumption that every company exposed to AI would enjoy continually expanding margins.
A reset rather than the end of the boom
The sell-off does not establish that the AI boom is ending. Demand for computing power remains strong, the largest technology companies continue to generate formidable cash flows and many infrastructure projects are backed by long-term customer contracts.
What has changed is the market’s willingness to overlook the price and financing structure of that growth.
The most resilient companies are likely to be those able to fund investment from operating cash flow, secure long-duration customers and demonstrate that new capacity will earn returns comfortably above its financing costs.
More speculative operators may face greater scrutiny, particularly where debt is expensive, customers are concentrated or expected revenue depends on demand that has not yet materialised.
For Australian investors, the lesson extends beyond US technology shares. Local data-centre operators, infrastructure funds, electricity suppliers and property groups are increasingly exposed to the same investment cycle.
Artificial intelligence may remain one of the defining growth themes of the decade. But last week’s correction showed that enthusiasm for the technology does not eliminate financial discipline.
The next stage of the AI boom will be judged not only by computing power, model performance or demand for chips, but by something more traditional: whether the assets being financed can generate enough cash to repay the money borrowed to build them.
Fact box
Nasdaq Composite: Down 4.5 per cent for the week ended October 16, 2026
Philadelphia Semiconductor Index: Down approximately 11.4 per cent
Micron Technology: Down approximately 14.6 per cent
Samsung Electronics: Down approximately 18 per cent
SK Hynix: Down approximately 24 per cent
US September inflation: 3.7 per cent annually
Estimated 2026 AI-related investment-grade issuance: Approximately US$300 billion
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