John Lennon's Abbey Road Suit a Bargain at Auction

The white suit worn by John Lennon on the cover of the Beatles' 1969 album 'Abbey Road' has sold for nearly $46,000 (£29,700) at an auction in America, reports the Digital Spy website.

The price was considerably less than the $120,000 (£76,740) estimate, a figure based on last time it sold in 2005. The iconic outfit was made in Paris in 1969 by designer Ted Lapidus and has had several owners since being photographed on the pedestrian crossing outside London's Abbey Road Studios.

Lennon gave it to friend Richard Ross, owner of the Home club in New York. When Ross died it passed to Lennon's first wife, Cynthia. In 1996 it was bought by an unknown musician.

The auction took place on New Year's Day at the Braswell Gallery in the New England town of Norwalk in Connecticut. Other items that sold included a 1972 green Chrysler Town and Country station wagon that once belonged to Lennon and his second wife Yoko Ono.

According to Lennon, it was the car he and Ono used to drive across the US to visit a Chinese acupuncturist in San Francisco, who helped the pair stop using heroin. It sold for $5,500 (£3,500).