Salvador Dali sold blade of grass to Yoko Ono for $10,000
Salvador Dali once conned Yoko Ono out of $10,000 by sending her a piece of dried grass instead of a hair from his moustache, according to revelations by a former muse and lover.
Fearing
that the widow of John Lennon might use it for occult purposes, the surrealist
master sent a blade of dried grass when she asked for some hair.
The
story has come to light in recollections by Amanda Lear, a French singer,
actress and model, who met Dali in the mid 1960s and remained close to him
until his death aged 84, in 1989.
"Throughout
his life, Dali could never resist the lure of a cheque," Miss Lear, now in
her 60s told France's VSD magazine. "Once he even sold a hair of his
moustache to Yoko Ono. Well, almost."
She
went on to explain that "Dali thought that Yoko Ono was a witch and might
use it in a spell. He didn't want to send her a personal item, much less one of
his hairs. So he sent me to the garden to find a dry blade of grass, and sent
it off in a nice presentation box.
"The
idiot paid 10,000 dollars for it. It amused him to rip people off."