A painting made by all four members of The Beatles is going up for auction at Christie’s.
The untitled piece of art, which has become known as Images of a Woman, was completed in 1966 by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison as they were holed up at Tokyo’s Hilton Hotel during their five-night stand at Nippon Budokan that June and July.
The band was stuck in the hotel for security reasons, and Christie’s notes that after a visitor brought them some top-quality art materials, the Fab Four sat around a table, and a rectangular sheet of paper was placed in the middle. Each Beatle then painted one corner, working their way towards the middle.
According to photographer Robert Whitaker, who was part of The Beatles’ entourage at the time, it took two nights for them to complete the painting.
“They’d stop [painting], go and do a concert, then it was ‘Let’s go back to the picture,’” he said. “I never saw them calmer or more contented than at this time.”
The auction for the painting, which Christie’s calls “the only known substantial piece of art made by the four Beatles in their years together,” is set to happen on February 1, with the auction house estimating it will go for between $400,000 and $600,000.
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