04-05-2025
Beatles pictures rediscovered by Paul McCartney in lockdown on sale for more than £60k
Beatles pictures rediscovered by Sir Paul McCartney during lockdown after 60 years are now going on sale for more than £60,000.
Fans of the Fab Four will be able to purchase prints of images taken by the 82-year-old singer when the band took the US by storm in 1963.
He had bought a new camera in the 60s, a little 35mm Pentax SLR, before boarding a Pan Am Flight to the US for their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
McCartney captured fun moments throughout the trip, from the flight to New York and their walks through Central Park to their time in Miami before appearing on the show.
During the pandemic Sir Paul made the discovery of contact sheets, slides and negatives, which he had boxed away and forgotten about for 60 years.
They went on display in the Eye of the Storm exhibition, which was initially unveiled at London's National Portrait Gallery in 2023.
In the wake of its popularity, McCartney decided to take the images across the globe.
The collections of photos titled Rearview Mirror: Photographs, December 1963–February 1964 is currently on display at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills until June 21.
Solo images and contact sheets featuring dozens of frames are among the 36 works on sale in ultra-limited editions of six to 10 signed prints. Their prices range from £11,300 to over £64,000.
The photos include a mix of colour prints, along with black-and-white images, including self-portraits and snapshots of Beatlemania, along with images from moving vehicles as they made a range of appearances.
'Pictures of a shared awe'
Joshua Chuang, the gallery's director at the Beverly Hills venue, told The Hollywood Reporter: 'There's some overlap with the images from Eye of the Storm, but even those images look different in our show. And, yes, the big difference is the fact that you can purchase them.
'This is the only time I can think of where someone of Paul's cultural impact took very good pictures of the exact moment you'd want him to be taking pictures.
'There's almost a sense in his pictures of a shared awe about what was happening to them. Like even they couldn't believe it.'
He added: 'Paul's not trying to launch another career as a fine art photographer. These are limited editions – six, eight, maybe 10 copies – and that's it.'
Sir Paul was inspired to try painting following a discussion with Willem de Kooning, the Dutch expressionist artist, back in the early 1980s. The Beatle showcased his work in 2000 at the Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, and again at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in 2002 – just under two decades before his work went on display at the the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 2023.
