John Lennon Cartoon Fetches $56K at Auction

A cartoon drawn by John Lennon during a 1969 "bed-in" protest with his wife Yoko Ono has sold at the British auction house Christie's for £37,250, equivalent to about $56,125, BBC News reports.

The cartoon, created while Lennon and Ono were staging a peaceful protest from a room in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada, is a caricature of the couple that includes a signed written message: "Joy, merry and gay love and peace from John Lennon [and] Yoko Ono."

The cartoon was part of a pop and rock auction at Christie's Thursday. The auction also included a black sequined jacket worn by Michael Jackson, who died one year ago Friday. It sold for £22,500 ($33,900), more than ten times the estimate.

A guitar belonging to Pete Townshend of the Who was among the biggest sales, fetching £49,250 ($74,205). The Gibson SG was used during the band's 1971 tour, and was part of one of the largest lots of Who items ever sold. American collectors Brad and Diana Rodgers were the items' previous owners.

Thursday's auction proved that even damaged valuable items can sell--at least if it's a guitar appropriately smashed by the Sex Pistols' Steve Jones, which sold for £16,250 ($24,484).