Ringo Starr, the iconic drummer for the Beatles, will auction off more than 800 items from his own personal collection of rock and roll memorabilia, the Associated Press reported. The collection was specially curated by Starr and his wife, former Bond girl Barbara Bach.
"We have so much stuff and a lot of it we haven't seen in 20 to 30 years," Starr, 75, told the Associated Press. "It started with me looking at storage units we have all around the world it seems. ... We found we had so much stuff."
Starr said he got the idea to do an auction after The Grammy Museum asked for items for an exhibition about the musician's life, that ran from 2013-14, according to the AP. He also worked on another nostalgia project, an upcoming book and a current exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London, featuring prints from old negatives that Starr found in boxes from the 1960s and beyond.
Among the 800 items to be listed in the auction, Starr will be selling his iconic 1963 Ludwig Oyster Black pearl three-piece drum set, Broadway World reported. The kit was used to record some of the Beatles' most legendary songs, like "Can't Buy Me Love" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand." The kit will go for an estimated $300,000-$500,000 when it hits the auction block.
Another iconic item from the Beatles' musical equipment is the 1964 325FG Rose-Morris Rickenbacker model guitar, known as the "Beatle-Backer." The guitar was used by the late John Lennon, but Lennon gave the guitar to Starr after a 1964 Christmas show. It is expected to go for an estimated $600,000-$800,000, according to Broadway World.
A portion of the proceeds will go to Starr and Bach's Lotus Children Foundation, which focuses on global social welfare issues. The auction will be held Dec. 4-5 at Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills.
