David Bowie's handwritten Jean Genie lyrics sold for £57,000

David Bowie's handwritten lyrics for his track The Jean Genie have been sold for £57,000 at auction.

The singer, who died in 2016, gave the sheet to the founder of the inaugural David Bowie Fan Club in the 1970s.

The song, taken from the Aladdin Sane album, was released as a single in 1972 and reached number 2 in the UK charts.

Omega Auctions' Dan Hampson said the owner had decided to part with them after seeing Bowie's lyrics for his hit Starman sell for £203,500 in 2022.

The lyric sheet for The Jean Genie comprised of 18 lines on a piece of A4 lined paper, which was titled, signed and dated by Bowie.

The rock star originally gave it to American fan Neal Peters after he founded the New York-based fan club in 1973.

The auction lot also included a 2009 letter on Neal Peters Collection stationery, which detailed how Bowie gave Mr Peters the lyrics, along with several photocopied documents relating to the fan club and Mr Peters.

Mr Hampson, the auction manager at the St Helens auction house, said the pre-sale estimate for the sheet had been between £50,000 and £70,000.

He said the vendor had been "in possession of this incredible set for a few years and decided to sell after seeing the amazing price achieved when we sold the Starman lyrics last year".

After The Jean Genie sale, auctioneer Paul Fairweather said the firm was "well pleased with the price achieved for this historic set of lyrics".

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