Iconic rock items roll in auction

NEW YORK, April 23 (UPI) -- Guitars owned by U2's The Edge, John Lennon's sunglasses and ex-President Clinton's sax were among items sold in New York to raise $2.5 million for charity.

The "Icons of Rock" auction -- in which record prices were paid Saturday for some of rock's most tantalizing memorabilia -- benefited Music Rising, a campaign co-founded by The Edge, the foundation said in a news release Monday. Music Rising, launched in 2005 to replace musical instruments lost or destroyed by hurricanes in the Gulf Region, has helped more than 2,400 professional musicians and more than 20,000 students and parishioners.

The highest-priced item sold was a guitar owned by Jimi Hendrix, fetching a record $410,000 in the auction conducted internationally. The Edge's 1975 Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar, which was played on every U2 tour since 1985, sold for $240,000. His Gibson ES-295 Archtop guitar brought in $105,000 and Bono's signed Irish Falcon Gretsch guitar was sold for $187,500.

More than 200 items were sold, including Clinton's saxophone, $54,000; a pair of Lennon's round, blue-tinted sunglasses, $30,000; and Kurt Cobain's MTV Award, $40,800.