The most expensive piano in the world belonged to the Beatle’s John Lennon and was auctioned off to British pop-singer George Michael in 2000. The Steinway & Sons “Model Z” Piano formerly owned by John Lennon is a fairly ordinary walnut upright piano that still bears a few cigarette burns attributed to the musician.

The piano was originally bought by Lennon in December 1970, and delivered to studios at his home in Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire, England. He composed and recorded the song “Imagine” on it, and was filmed playing the song on it for the first time to wife Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono band. Believed to be a piece of British history by many, the most expensive piano in the world sold at auction in the year 2000 for £1.45 million (about $2.1 million) dollars .

After using the world’s most expensive piano to record songs for an album, George Michael returned the piano to the Liverpool museum that housed it prior to his ownership. He stated that “the piano was not the type of thing that should be in storage somewhere or being protected, it should be seen by people,”