Yoko Ono is the rightful proprietor of a watch she gifted to her husband John Lennon shortly earlier than he was murdered, Switzerland’s supreme court docket dominated Thursday after it resurfaced at an auctioneers.
The extremely uncommon Patek Philippe 2499 timepiece was given to the previous Beatle on October 9, 1980 for his fortieth birthday, two months earlier than he was shot lifeless.
The 18-carat yellow gold Swiss watch was stolen and handed by way of varied palms earlier than a collector took it to a Geneva public sale home for a valuation in 2014. The auctioneers contacted Ono, who didn’t know the watch was lacking.
“Yoko Ono is the owner of John Lennon’s watch,” the Federal Supreme Courtroom of Switzerland dominated, because it dismissed the collector’s enchantment towards a judgement by the Geneva Cantonal Courtroom of Justice.
Ono purchased the watch in New York Metropolis in 1980 and had the again engraved with the inscription: “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10-9-1980 N.Y.C”.
Launched in late October 1980, a couple of months after it was recorded, “(Just Like) Starting Over” was Lennon’s final single issued throughout his lifetime.
Lennon was shot lifeless outdoors the couple’s condo constructing in New York on December 8, 1980. The watch was the final reward Ono gave Lennon earlier than his homicide.
Stolen by Ono’s driver
The Patek Philippe was listed within the stock of Lennon’s property and was saved in a room of their condo.
A Turkish man who had been Ono’s driver from 1995 to 2006, handed over the watch to an intermediate proprietor in 2010, together with 86 different objects that had belonged to Lennon, court docket paperwork confirmed.
It was later handed to a German public sale home, which offered it in 2014, for 600,000 euros, to an Italian collector residing in Hong Kong.
The collector gave it to a Geneva public sale home for a valuation later that 12 months. They raised the alarm with Ono.
In 2018, the collector filed a court docket motion in search of to determine his standing because the watch’s proprietor, with Ono opposing the transfer.
In 2022 a Geneva decrease court docket discovered Ono was the only proprietor — a choice upheld on enchantment in 2023 by the upper Geneva Cantonal Courtroom of Justice.
The Italian collector then appealed to the Federal Supreme Courtroom, which upheld the cantonal court docket resolution.
The Supreme Courtroom mentioned it was not disputed that Ono had inherited the watch after Lennon’s demise.
The Cantonal Courtroom of Justice discovered that the watch “had been stolen by the former driver”, the Supreme Courtroom mentioned, including that there was no proof to point out that Ono meant to donate “something as special as the watch”, with its explicit inscription.
“Since it is a stolen item, the collector, now the appellant, could not acquire ownership of the watch” when he bought it in 2014, and in response to German legislation, this is applicable “regardless of whether or not the purchaser was in good faith as to the origin of the item”.
Lennon’s watch is being held by the Italian vendor’s lawyer, beneath an settlement that it might probably solely be launched to the proprietor designated by a state court docket.
It ought to, due to this fact, return to Ono, now 91.
