George Michael Buys Lennon Piano

By Stephen M. Silverman

10/23/1997 at 12:00 AM EDT

George Michael, 37, was identified this morning in London as yesterday's buyer of a $2.1 million piano that once belonged to John Lennon and on which the late Beatle composed "Imagine." The instrument, an upright walnut Steinway, came up for auction Tuesday and was the center of an international dispute, with loyalists demanding that it be kept in Britain. (Bidding was held in the Hard Rock Cafes in both London and New York as well as over the telephone and the Internet.) A spokesman for the auction told Reuters that Michael intends to keep the piano in Britain.