A bullet fired from the gun that killed John Lennon has been pulled from auction days before it was set to go on sale from British auction house Anderson & Garland. No reason has been given as to why the bullet was dropped.
JUST IN: British auction house Anderson & Garland has withdrawn the auction for what it said was a bullet from the gun that killed John Lennon.
The bullet from Mark David Chapman’s gun was gifted to English Police Officer Brian Taylor by the NYPD after they allowed him to shoot… pic.twitter.com/1vipXQIcnE
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 27, 2024
A link back to the lot shows the item has been withdrawn.
The bullet originally belonged to Brian Taylor, a police officer from England. The New York Police Department let Taylor fire Mark David Chapman’s gun while visiting the city in September 1984. The NYPD allowed Taylor to do so as an apology after being involved in a shooting while on patrol unarmed. He was taken to a small museum in the NYPD’s Forensic Investigation Division where he fired the gun of Lennon’s assassin.
“The bullet and cartridge were retrieved and given to Taylor as a gift. He had them mounted and hung it on the wall of his office for the remainder of his career,” writes Anderson & Garland in a media release.
Fred Wyrley-Birch, director at Anderson & Garland, initially told BBC News that they were unsure what sort of price this lot would attract.
“There is a Beatles fanbase that is fanatical and a market for just about anything Beatles,” says Wyrley-Birch to BBC News. “But very seldomly do you get something so unusual and unique, it’s difficult to know what it’s worth and whether there’s a market for it or not. It’s a really interesting piece of Beatles memorabilia that probably can’t be replicated.”
Bullets fired from notorious guns have sold in the thousands before. According to sports business reporter Darren Rovell, bullets from the gun of Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald (the man who assassinated President John Kennedy in 1963), have sold for up to $2,500.