Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Sorry if this has been addressed before, but I couldn't find it in a search. After seeing an Academy Award on Ed Begley Jr.'s mantle on his HGTV show tonight, I looked him up on IMDB.com to see what he won an Oscar for (he didn't--his dad did). Anyway, in the trivia section it said he paid $300,000 for George Harrison's guitar at an auction in 2003. It didn't say which one. I did a little more research and found an article saying that it was "Rosie", the rosewood telecaster that Delaney Bramlett had been given by George. Another article said that it was over $400,000 with the commissions, and that he bought it on behalf of Olivia Harrison.

Has anyone here heard of this? Articles at the time said that the auction was won by an anonymous west coast collector. I guess I'm surprised because I would have thought that Olivia would have a lot more money than Ed to buy the guitar, if they both wanted it. Then I thought that he might have been bidding on her behalf, so that another bidder wouldn't assume Olivia's deep pockets and try to run the bid up. But it seems to have been anonymous, anyway. Help?

Maybe Olivia owned it and the money went to her?

As I understand it the cost was $470,000, Ed bought it for Olivia, and she is currently in possession of it.

Thanks for the insight, but I'm still confused. When you saw he bought it "for" her, do you know, did he buy it on Olivia's behalf (her money), or as a gift (his money)? With three famous people and one famous guitar involved, I would have expected this to be more of a news item at the time.

I work for Heritage Auctions (Dallas) the company that auctioned it. Stan's got it. Begley is a friend of Olivia's. He bid on it and won it on her behalf using her bidder number.

Thanks, Mike. You truly do learn something new here every day.