John Lennon's Teeth Sold Around IDR 378 Million In History Today 5 November 2011

John Lennon (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Today, November 5, exactly a decade ago or in 2011, a dentist from Canada named Michael Zuk bought a piece of John Lennon's tooth for 19,500 pounds or if converted into today's exchange rate it was around Rp. 378 million. Zuk bought the tooth at an auction in Stockport.

Citing the BBC, the tooth comes from a collection of rock memorabilia belonging to Alan McGee, former boss of Oasis' Creation Records label. Michael Zuk made a telephone bid for the tooth that the former Beatles band member gave to his domestic helper, Dot Jarlett, who worked for him in the 1960s.

According to Dot Harlett's son, Barry, worked for John Lennon between 1964 and 1968. Dot and Lennon had a warm relationship.

"He was very close to John, and one day while chatting in the kitchen, John gave my mother a tooth (John Lennon had previously gone to the dentist to have his tooth extracted) and suggested that it be given to my sister as a souvenir, as she is a huge fan of The The Beatles," he said.

When his mother turned 90, Barry said he decided to sell John Lennon's teeth because he was afraid they would be lost. Karen Fairweather, owner of Omega Auction House, said the tooth was fragile for DNA testing but she had no doubts about its authenticity. "Because it's directly from Dot, we don't doubt the origin of the goods," he said.

Barry Jarlett also said that Lennon often gave his family many gifts. She plans to keep the leather purse Lennon gave her and her mother still has the pearl necklace Lennon gave her when she returned from Japan.

John Lennon (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Other items for sale include an oil painting by John Squire of the Stone Roses and gifts from politicians. Zuk, who has written a book about celebrity teeth, said: "As soon as I heard the teeth were for sale, I (thought) had to have them."

John Lennon clone

Zuk said he hoped to be able to clone John Lennon using DNA from the tooth. At that time, the tooth had been sent to an unnamed US laboratory. It is known that scientists are "considering ways to extract the genetic code."

"I'm nervous and excited about the possibility that we'll be able to completely sequence John Lennon's DNA," Zuk said. "With researchers working to clone mammoths, the same technology could definitely make human cloning a reality."

However, the latest news regarding Zuk's attempt to clone was in 2018. At that time many scientists still doubted the ability to clone John Lennon. In addition, scientists say they still strongly believe that mammoths can be cloned, let alone John Lennon.

Illustration of teeth (Source: Unsplash)

Citing Forbes, the scientists explain cloning animals such as fish and tadpoles is easy because the gestation period is short, which means a low cloning success rate is easier to deal with than when it comes to cloning mammals.

Worse still, cloned animals often have health problems and die younger than usual. Therefore, human cloning may not be possible. Although scientists began to conduct research into cloning embryonic cells for use in therapeutic practice. What is clear is that human cloning is unethical.

*Read other information about TODAY's HISTORY or read other interesting articles from Putri Ainur Islam.

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