Uri Geller 'elated' after buying Lennon's glasses

Uri Geller - pictured with John Lennon in 1974 - said: `I would have gone up to £500,000'

Spoon-bending performer and self-proclaimed mystic Uri Geller has told the BBC he is the buyer of a pair of glasses given by John Lennon to a man from Surrey.

The iconic blue-tinted round sold for £40,000 in an auction on Wednesday held at Farleigh Golf Club, in Surrey.

Mr Geller, who plans to display the glasses prominently in his museum in Tel Aviv, Israel, said he was "elated" with his purchase.

He said: "John Lennon and I were very good friends while we were living in New York in the 1970s."

The glasses were given by the former Beatle to a man from Surrey as a birthday present more than 55 years ago.

Catherine Southon Auctions said the singer gifted them to their seller - identified only as Michael - at Abbey Road Studios in 1968.

Uri Geller paid £40,000 for the glasses at an auction in Surrey

On putting in the highest bid, Mr Geller said: "I knew I had to buy these glasses whatever. I would have gone up to £500,000.

"Glasses are a passage into our soul, into our psyche."

He said he had a “really close” friendship with John Lennon, “because we had an amazing connection”.

The showman, now in his 70s, added: "John changed my life as that's where I learned about spirituality.

"He believed in UFOs and I believed in UFOs and he was fascinated by my alien collection.

"He gave me an alien egg."

Mr Geller said the glasses will be displayed prominently in the John Lennon section of his museum in Tel Aviv alongside the alien egg.

John Lennon died after being shot outside his home in New York in December 1980.

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