Imagine That: FBI Confiscates Lennon's Fingerprints From Auction

Feds likely not interested in slain Beatle, just stolen property

The FBI is still very interested in John Lennon, even though the former Beatle, who would have been 70 on Saturday, has been dead for three decades.

On Wednesday, federal agents went into a small shop in New York and seized a Lennon fingerprint card that was the centerpiece of an auction of Lennon memorabilia. The signed card, made in 1976 as part of Lennon's application for citizenship, was expected to fetch more than $100,000.

Owners of Gotta Have Rock and Roll told The New York Times the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the United States Attorney in Manhattan had started asking questions about the card last week. Lennon had well-chronicled issues with the FBI, mainly for his antiwar stance, but such buzz 30 years after he was assassinated had shop owner Peter Siegel perplexed.

“I’ve been doing this 20 years and have never had this much government interest in something,” Siegel said. “Here he is, one of our greatest musicians ever, and they just don’t stop investigating this guy.”

It's more likely the feds just want to know how government property fell into private hands and ended up ticketed for an auction. FBI spokesman James Margolin said there was an “investigation into how that item came to be up for auction.”

Siegel told the Times the card was being sold for a private collector, whom he identified only as a former concert promoter who had bought the card at a Beatles convention about two decades ago.

Selected Reading: The New York Times, gottahaverockandroll.com, TMZ.

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