A shirt stained with John Lennon's blood has sold for $42,500 at Heritage Auctions.

It belonged to Jay Hastings, the concierge at Lennon's Dakota apartment building in New York who ran to his aid after the former Beatle was shot on December 8, 1980.

The shirt was worn by a concierge at the Dakota building

It was accompanied by a signed copy of the former Beatles' last album, Double Fantasy and a Thanksgiving card signed by Yoko Ono, John and their son Sean.

Gary Shrum of Heritage Auctions explains: "Jay Hastings kept this shirt all these years and never really spoke about it. It has just been sitting in a drawer for years and now he is getting older he felt it was time to sell it.

"There are remnants of blood on the shirt. Some people might be appalled but it's a piece of history. We did ask ourselves 'is this too dark or wrong to sell' but I don't think it is.

"He is not exploiting John Lennon's death. He is telling the story of how he tried to help John Lennon in the last few minutes of his life."

Last year the guitar Lennon used to write some of the Beatles' first hits sold for a record $2.4m.  

We have genuine strands of John Lennon's hair for sale.

The sale also featured Prince's iconic Yellow Cloud guitar, which sold for $137,000.

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