Pattie Boyd Sells Private Collection, Including George Harrison and Eric Clapton Artifacts, for $3.6M

Pattie Boyd, the ex-wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton and the inspiration for the latter's “Layla,” has sold her private collection of letters, photos and more — including items from the two rock legends — at auction for 3.6 million dollars.

Boyd's amazing collection of 111 items tells the story of her whirlwind romance with Harrison after they met on set A hard day's night in 1964, their time together at the height of Beatlemania, her disillusionment with him in the late 60s and Clapton's attempts to steal her away despite being close friends with Harrison.

Perhaps the most striking item was a 1970 handwritten letter to Boyd from Clapton. “Dear L,” she wrote. “It seems like forever since I last saw you or spoke to you… If there is still a feeling in your heart for me… you must let me know!.. Don't call. Send a letter… that's much safer.”

When he rejected his initial proposals, Clapton fell into a dark cloud of alcohol and drug abuse that lasted for years. Before that, he poured all his misery, lust and frustration over the love triangle in the 1970s classic “Layla”, Derek and the Dominoes.

The Boyd collection contains the original painting by Emile Théodore Frandsen de Schomberg La Jeune Fille au Bouquetwhich was used as its cover Layla and other miscellaneous love songs album. Clapton gave Harrison the painting in the late '70s, and he gave it to Boyd in the late '80s. The painting sold for $2.5 million at auction, more than 33 times its pre-auction estimate, The Associated Press References.

By that point, Boyd had left Harrison for Clapton. They married in 1977. Boyd's collection includes a handwritten Clapton setlist, polaroids from an impromptu Cream reunion in 1976, handwritten lyrics to an unfinished Clapton song called “Sweet Loraine,” and various postcards and letters from their marriage, which ended in .