Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton, has auctioned off her private collection of personal heirlooms for $3.6 million.
Books, photos and hand-written love letters from the two musicians were included in the 110 piece lot sold by the auction company Christie's.
The company described Boyd as "rock’s most legendary muse." She was also a successful model and photographer.
Boyd first met Harrison when she played a school girl in the Beatles' 1964 movie A Hard Day's Night. This put her at the center of the Beatlemania craze. The couple tied the knot in 1966.
The muse is also the subject of the Beatles track "Something," which Harrison penned for the group's 1969 album Abbey Road.
One of the most interesting artifacts in the lot is a 1970 letter from Harrison to Boyd trying to figure out the status of their relationship.
"It seems like an eternity since I last saw or spoke to you," he wrote. "If there is still a feeling in your heart for me … you must let me know!..Don’t telephone. Send a letter … that is much safer."
Harrison introduced Boyd to his friend Clapton, who secretly fell in love with the woman he nicknamed "Layla." That's why wrote a song about Boyd titled "Layla" in 1971. Her initial rejection sent the blues rocker into a years-long drug- and alcohol-fueled spiral, Gold Radio UK reported.
The collection also included Emile Théodore Frandsen de Schomberg’s painting "La Jeune Fille au Bouquet," which was used as the cover art for Clapton's LP Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
It sold for $2.5 million, which was 33 times what the image was initially expected to fetch, the Associated Press reported.
Boyd and Harrison divorced in 1977 after three years of separation, Boyd quickly struck up a relationship with Clapton. The pair got married in 1979.
There was some tension, but Harrison and Clapton managed to stay friends through the ordeal. The Beatle even attended the new couple's wedding, where he called himself the "husband-in-law."
Boyd and Harrison's union wouldn't last. The pair separated in 1987 and officially divorced in 1989.
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The legendary muse wrote an autobiography titled Wonderful Today in 2007. It was re-titled Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me for its release in the U.S.
Harrison has frequently been called the most Irish member of the Beatles. Like the rest of the members, he's partially descended from migrants who crossed the Irish Sea to Liverpool in the wake of the Great Potato Famine.
But Harrison was more in touch with his Gaelic roots. His mother Louise was a proud Irish Catholic with family members who remained on the northside of Dublin. Harrison would often take a ferry to visit his relatives there.
Today (Monday, March 25) is also the 55th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "bed-in" protest of the Vietnam War.
The newlyweds decided to stay in bed for around a week while discussing their message of peace and non-violence.
"The world is getting more and more violent and tense," Ono said during a Dutch TV interview. "So instead of becoming violent about it... let's stay in bed and have a laugh."