Michael paid £1.67million for a John Lennon piano 'for the people'
George Michael bought the piano on which John Lennon composed the classic hit song Imagine so it would not end up in storage and could be 'seen by the people'.
The Wham! frontman anonymously paid £1.67 million for the upright historic Steinway formerly owned by the ex-Beatle at a pop memorabilia auction in 2000.
Purchasing it so it would stay in the country, Michael was later revealed as the owner of the instrument and announced he was going to hand it over to the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool.
Before the auction, the piano had been loaned to the museum by a private collector who bought it in 1992, but when the collector decided to sell it there were fears it would be lost to wealthy Beatles fans in Japan or the US.
In an interview around the time of the purchase Michael said it was 'worth every penny' as he confirmed it would be returning to the city. 'Having paid one and a half million pounds for it I'd really like to play something on it and stick it on my next record,' Michael added. 'So as I'm recording right now I think I'll hold on to it for a couple of months and see if I can get it on to my new record and then it's going back to the museum in Liverpool where I think it rightly belongs.
By: Richard Spillett
Source: The Daily Mail
