George Harrison’s sitar is looking to come together with a new owner.
The late Beatles musician’s distinctive Indian instrument will go up for grabs Thursday by Nate D. Sanders Auctions — with bidding set to begin at $50,000.
Harrison purchased the wooden sitar with steel strings from London’s Indiacraft shop in 1965 and first used it to record the hit “Norwegian Wood” on the album “Rubber Soul” that same year.
“I hadn’t really figured out what to do with it. It was quite spontaneous: I found the notes that played the lick. It fitted and it worked,” Harrison said of recording the tune in “The Beatles Anthology” TV documentary series.
Using the sitar sparked Harrison’s obsession with Indian culture and Hinduism.
He strummed the instrument on other tracks like “Within You Without You” and “Love You To” and even traveled to India to study the sitar.
The auction lot includes letters of authenticity from Harrison’s ex-wife Pattie Boyd and friend George Drummond, who Harrison eventually gifted the sitar to.