Beatles guru Maharishi sandals expected to transcend $100,000 estimate

Spiritual leader and Beatles guru Maharishi's wooden sandals are the highlight of a Fame Bureau auction

"Sexy Sadie, what have you done? You've made a fool of everyone."

John Lennon's thinly veiled criticism of spiritual leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi can be heard on the Beatles' White Album.

Thanks in large part to his relationship with the Beatles, the Maharishi shot to fame in the late 1960's.

And it is why his wooden sandals are estimated at £50,000 to £80,000 ahead of their auction at the Fame Bureau in London on November 26.

The Maharishi was famed for his yogic flying techniques

Consignor Mark Landau, 65, explains that he acquired the sandals from the spiritual leader in the 1970's when a strap broke, requiring the Maharishi to purchase a new pair.

Landau was the Maharishi's "skin boy" in the 1970's, a title that referred to his role carrying deer skins at meetings.

"In my experience, they [the sandals] still carry a lot of his energy, as if the atoms and molecules have been entrained in it. And in India, of course, they would be revered as Holy objects," he told the UK's Daily Mail newspaper.

A piece of Indian wood, on which Lennon carved the lyrics to Sexy Sadie in 1968, sold for £35,000 at the Fame Bureau in 2008, just months after the Maharishi died.

In remains to be seen whether the subsequent years have boosted the Maharishi's profile with collectors.

Beatles memorabilia is selling well at the moment. Just this week, John and Yoko's bed-in "Bed Peace" placard from 1969 made £97,250 at Christie's.

We have a rare copy of the album cover from A Hard Day's Night, signed by all four Beatles, currently in stock.

The Fame Bureau auction will also feature an iconic Violin Hofner Bass played by Paul McCartney, which is estimated at £10,000 to £15,000.

Recent and related articles

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Images: The Fame Bureau