Yoko Ono opens John Lennon exhibition
Updated on 12 May 2009
John Lennon's widow Yoko Ono has opened a new exhibition dedicated to the former Beatle.
The display called 'John Lennon: The New York Years' commemorates Lennon's time in the Big Apple.
It was put together by Ono and Jim Henke, the Vice President of Exhibitions for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
One of the most moving artefacts in the New York exhibition is the paper bag containing his clothes from the night in 1980 he was shot dead by crazed fan Mark David Chapman.
Ono, who received it from the medical examiner, said: "That really was hard. It just broke me down. Because it was the coroner's office, and I just got this brown paper bag on my lap."
Lennon's famous New York City t-shirt, his upright piano from his Dakota apartment, and a posthumous 1981 Grammy Award for 'Double Fantasy' are all on display.
On the historical side, there are letters denoting Lennon's long-fought battle against deportation in the early 1970s.
A dozen or so hand-written lyrics including many from Double Fantasy are kept in glass cases.
Ono said: "It's a small, big show, with a powerful wind blowing in it from the past. Like Manhattan itself."
She said she was still haunted by Lennon's death.
"So it's 30 years ago, something like that, so I still get affected by it.
"If his death was a slow process we could have talked about it or something."
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