POP/ROCK - May 8, 1992

Breaking a Record: A black leather jacket owned by John Lennon before the Beatles hit it big was sold at auction Thursday for $43,100, a world-record price for a piece of clothing worn by a rock star. The anonymous buyer at Christie’s auction of pop memorabilia in London beat the previous record of $29,400, paid for Michael Jackson’s white glove in December, 1991. Christie’s had expected the jacket to bring under $17,800. London’s National Portrait Gallery bought a portrait of fellow Beatle Paul McCartney by his brother Mike for $5,900, while the earliest known autograph of Lennon, murdered in New York in 1980, went for $1,470.