An abstract painting by all four Beatles has sold for £1.4 million at auction.
The picture – Images of a Woman – was painted in 1966 when the group was locked in a hotel suite in Tokyo.
The band had received death threats and were confined their rooms.
Brian Epstein, the group’s manager, brought painting materials to the presidential suite of the Tokyo Hilton to try to keep the Fab Four entertained.
He set the 30 inches by 40 inches canvas on a table and placed a lamp in the middle.
The empty circle left by the lamp was later used for their signatures.
All the Beatles – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr – painted their own quarter.
It’s said a newly cut version of Revolver was playing the background.
The title “Images of a Woman” was given by a Japanese journalist in the Eighties.
However, the painting is known simply The Tokyo Painting.
Casey Rogers, from Christie’s New York, where the painting was sold, said:
“It’s a wonderful work of fine art, and a powerful piece of Beatles memorabilia.
“This is the only major art piece we know of made and signed by all four Beatles, and it takes you right there to 1966, in Room 1005 of Tokyo’s Hilton Hotel, as John, Paul, George and Ringo sat around a table and created this work together.
Robert Whitaker, the tour photographer, said The Beatles were totally absorbed by the project, and were keen to get back to the painting after their concerts.
Whitaker later added: “It was absolutely the best period I ever witnessed among The Beatles.
“I never saw them calmer, more contented than at this time…
“They’d stop, go and do a concert, and then it was, ‘Let’s go back to the picture.’
“They never discussed what they were painting.
“It evolved naturally.”
The finished work was originally sold at a charity auction, where it was bought by Tetsusaburo Shimoyama, the president of the Japanese Beatles Fan Club.
It stayed in Japan for 46 years before it was bought by a private collector in New York in 2012 and has recently come up for auction again.
Christie’s valued the painting at £470,000.
However, it sparked a bidding war and was knocked down for £1,40 million to an anonymous buyer.
