A rare watch, gifted to John Lennon by his wife Yoko Ono and which was stolen after his death, a Swiss court ruled this Thursday, paving the way for the piece to be returned to Yoko.
The Patek Philippe watch, estimated to be worth 4 million Swiss francs, was a 40th birthday gift to the former Beatle from Yoko Ono in 1980, just two months before his murder in New York.
The watch bears the inscription “(JUST LIKE) STARTING OVER LOVE YOKO 10·9·1980 NYC” on the back of its 18-karat gold dial. It’s a verse from a song they wrote together.
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The decision published by the Federal Court this Thursday confirms two previous judgments by Geneva courts, which took place in 2022 and 2023. It ends a years-long legal battle between Yoko Ono and an Italian living in China who claimed ownership of the watch. He was the appellant in this case.
Like all names of the parties involved, their identity is provided in code form in Swiss legal documents. Reuters was unable to contact his lawyer as his identity was also coded.
Court documents show that the watch changed hands and countries several times after being taken by Ono’s Turkish driver in 2006. He claimed that Yoko consented to him taking the watch. In Turkey, the watch changed hands again in 2010, before being sold to a German auction house, which resold it to the Italian citizen living in China.
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Yoko only discovered that the watch had been stolen in 2014, after a Geneva-based company, hired by the Italian to assess its value, notified his lawyer. The watch is currently in custody in Geneva by the appellant’s lawyer, Swiss court documents show, and it was not clear when or if it would be returned.
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