George Michael Buys Lennon's Piano

LONDON (AP) â€” Imagine that: George Michael bought John Lennon's piano. <br><br>Michael paid $2.1 million to buy the piano Lennon used to compose ``Imagine,'' Michael's spokeswoman said

Wednesday, October 18th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LONDON (AP) â€” Imagine that: George Michael bought John Lennon's piano.

Michael paid $2.1 million to buy the piano Lennon used to compose ``Imagine,'' Michael's spokeswoman said Wednesday.

``He's just so excited to have got it at the moment that we don't know what will happen to it,'' spokeswoman Josephine Green said. ``He feels it's a piece of history and he wants it to stay in the U.K.''

The wood-finished upright was auctioned Tuesday, but the singer had not been identified as the winning telephone bidder.

The piano, a Steinway Model Z upright, was built in Hamburg in 1970 and purchased by Lennon later that year. Film footage shows him performing ``Imagine'' for Yoko Ono on the instrument at his home in southern England in 1971.

The piano was bought by a private British collector in 1992. It had been on loan to the Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool since February.

The piano was the centerpiece of a sale of Beatles memorabilia organized by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and auctioneer Ted Owen. Among other items was a Ferrari owned by Lennon and restored by the late Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana's boyfriend. It sold for $158,000.