John Lennon guitar sold at auction for $2.4million

John Lennon and Yoko Ono pictured in 1973 Credit: Press Association

An acoustic guitar that John Lennon used to record and write Love Me Do, I Want to Hold Your Hand and other songs by The Beatles has sold for $2.4million (£1.59m) at auction.

Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, California, said the Gibson J-160E guitar was sold on Saturday to an undisclosed buyer.

The auction house said the guitar was one of only two of its type flown from America to England in 1962 for Lennon and fellow Beatle George Harrison.

Lennon used the guitar for about a year before swapping it with Harrison; it later went missing in 1963.