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Police arrested a man in Berlin on Monday
suspected of receiving the 86 stolen items, which include
Lennon's last diary that ended on the day he was shot and killed
in New York on Dec. 8, 1980.
"This day contains the entry that on that morning John Lennon
and Yoko Ono had an appointment with Annie Leibovitz to take a
photo which I think is world famous," Berlin prosecutor Michael
von Hagen told a news conference.
The Leibovitz portrait of a naked Lennon curled up around Ono on
their bed ran on the January 1981 cover of Rolling Stone
magazine.
Hagen rejected suggestions that Ono might have lent or given
away the objects: "The diaries especially ... were also treated
by Yoko Ono as something sacred. And the idea that she would
have given away three original diaries, especially the one that
ends on the very day Lennon died, can be completely ruled out."
Carsten Pfohl, head of property crime for Berlin police, said
investigators had found one of the pairs of glasses and a
receipt in Lennon's name hidden in the trunk of the car of the
accused on Monday.
Police suspect that the items were stolen by Ono's former driver
and then taken to Turkey and were only brought to Berlin in 2013
or 2014. Another suspect lives in Turkey, they said.
The Berlin police was alerted after they were found by the
administrator for a bankrupt auction house, which had previously
valued the objects at 3.1 million euros ($3.64 million).
($1 = 0.8519 euros)
(Reporting by Tanya Wood; Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by
Gareth Jones)
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