Lennon, Ono Photograph From 1980 Is For Sale

A photograph of John Lennon and Yoko Ono taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shortly before the former Beatles was murdered is now up for auction.

The Associated Press reported that a photo of the couple embracing will be auctioned through Swann Auction Galleries on Oct. 19. Leibovitz took the photograph for Rolling Stone magazine on December 8, 1980, the day that Lennon was shot to death in New York City.

A private collector is selling the photograph, which is expected to fetch somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000. According to the AP, the sale is not related to Leibowitz’s recent entanglement regarding her debts and rights to her photographs.

The photo is not the iconic picture of a nude Lennon and clothed Ono, which appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone a month after Lennon's death. In 2005, the American Society of Magazine Editors chose that image as the top magazine cover of the last 40 years.

Selected Reading: The Associated Press, MSNBC

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