A New York City landlord has a message for the collector who recently sold the suit John Lennon wore on the cover of the Beatles' ``Abbey Road'' album: You never give me your money.
The seller's former landlord has sued the Norwalk gallery that auctioned the late Beatles' suit for $46,000, trying to get at the proceeds to satisfy a rent debt.
Braswell Galleries was told before the Jan. 1 sale that a court had determined in 2009 that seller Biond Fury -- a psychic and memorabilia collector -- owed more than $21,000 in rent for his former Manhattan apartment, according to landlord Mark Arrow's lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in a Manhattan state court.
Arrow's lawyers said they told the gallery not to go through with the sale and that the gallery should now have to fork over at least $21,463.
Arrow had been unable to collect the rent debt from Fury, but the prospects brightened when he learned of the coming auction from a newspaper report last month, Arrow lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey said.
``We're all coming together over John Lennon,'' he said.
Gallery co-owner Kathy Braswell declined to comment to the Associated Press.
A lawyer for Fury didn't return the AP's telephone call and no working telephone number could be found for Fury, who in 2008 bought a Durham, North Carolina, mansion that was the site of a notorious 2001 murder, according to a local newspaper report.
Fury has been involved for decades in buying and selling memorabilia, including items related to the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe, according to news reports.
Co-owner George Braswell told The Hour of Norwalk last month that the ``Abbey Road'' suit's owner was selling it because of economic hardship. The seller had bought it in 1996, sold it in 2005 and repurchased it in 2008, according to a timeline on the Braswell Galleries website.
The white suit was custom-made for Lennon by French designer Ted Lapidus.
Released in 1969, ``Abbey Road'' was one of the Beatles' most lasting albums, with songs including ``Come Together,'' ``Something'' and the 16-minute medley that includes ``You Never Give Me Your Money.''
