A New York City landlord has a message for the collector who recently sold the suit John Lennon wore on the cover of the Beatles' ``Abbey Road'' album: You never give me your money.
The seller's former landlord has sued the gallery that auctioned the late Beatle's uit for $46,000, trying to get at the proceeds to satisfy a rent debt.
Braswell Galleries was told before the Jan. 1 sale that a court had determined in 2009 that seller Biond Fury _ a psychic and memorabilia collector _ owed more than $21,000 in rent for his former Manhattan apartment, according to landlord Mark
Arrow's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in a Manhattan state court. Arrow's lawyers say they told the Norwalk, Conn.-based gallery not to go through with the sale, and that the gallery should now have to fork over at least $21,463.
Arrow had been unable to collect the rent debt from Fury, but the prospects brightened when he learned of the coming auction from a newspaper report last month, said Arrow lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey.
``We're all coming together over John Lennon,'' he said.
Gallery co-owner Kathy Braswell declined to comment.
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A lawyer for Fury didn't return a telephone call this week. No working telephone number could be found for Fury, who in 2008 bought a Durham, N.C., mansion that was the site of a notorious 2001 murder, according to a local newspaper report.
Fury has been involved for decades in buying and selling memorabilia, including items related to the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe, according to news reports.
Co-owner George Braswell told The Hour of Norwalk last month that the ``Abbey Road'' suit's owner was selling it because of economic hardship. The seller had bought it in 1996, sold it in 2005 and repurchased it in 2008, according to a timeline on the Braswell Galleries website.
The white suit was custom-made for Lennon by French designer Ted Lapidus.
Released in 1969, ``Abbey Road'' was one of the Beatles' most indelible albums, with songs including ``Come Together,'' ``Something'' and the 16-minute medley that includes ``You Never Give Me Your Money.''