WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) - photo 1
WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) - photo 2
WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) - photo 3
WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) - photo 4
WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) - photo 5
WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) - photo 6

WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT)

Lot 160
16.10.2025 10:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Sold
$ 9 525
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
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The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
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ID 1472082
Lot 160 | WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT)
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
LENNON, John (1940-1980); ONO, Yoko (b. 1933). WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT Happy Christmas from John & Yoko. [London or New York, 1969]. Signed, ("Love from John Lennon Yoko Ono Lennon").

Broadside, 150 x 210mm.

An extremely rare signed placard from Lennon and Ono's storied "War is Over!" campaign, presented to Ian L. Campbell on 22 December 1969. Ono and Lennon were interviewed by Campbell, a member of the Canadian Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs. The Le Dain Commission, as it was popularly known, sought the testimony of over 12,000 individuals as it studied the use of cannabis and other recreational drugs. It was completed in 1972 with the majority favoring decriminalization and a minority recommending full legalization (Dr. Campbell recommended issuing tickets for public consumption of cannabis).

Lennon and Ono began the War is Over! campaign on 15 December 1969 when the couple arranged for a simple slogan, in Franklin Gothic typeface to resemble a newspaper headline, to be posted on numerous billboards in eleven major cities across the world, together with full-page newspaper advertisements together with posters and leaflets. Lennon credited Ono with the concept, and specifically something for Christmas, remarking in an interview in Canada shortly before they gave their testimony to the Le Dain Commission, "...what we’ll do is a poster event. And then how do you get posters stuck all around the world, you know. It’s easier said than done. So we just started ringing up and find it out. And at first we’re gonna have... we had some other wording, didn’t we, like, 'Peace Declared.' And it started up, there’s a place in New York, where you can have your own newspaper headline, you know. There’s a little shop somewhere in Times Square. And we were wondering how to, sort of like, get it in the newspapers as if it had happened, you know. And it developed from that" (John Lennon and Yoko Ono, interview with Marshall McLuhan, Mississauga, Ontario, 19 December 1969).

[With:] Typescript, "John Lennon and Yoko Ono Interview With Dean I.L. Campbell and Dr. Lehmann", 52 pages, 215 x 277mm. Spiral-bound; Campbell's business card; a display sign for the commission; a sterling silver cigarette case bearing Campbell's engraved initials. Provenance: Dr. Ian L. Campbell – purchased by the consignor.

Christie's would like to thank noted Beatles autograph and handwriting expert Frank Caiazzo for his assistance in authenticating this lot.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
02.10.2025 – 16.10.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
4FQ.AYGKAGLUQ@FO3G@
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