A drunken Lennon, then in his early 30s, had loutishly used a valuable painting by French artist Matisse as an ashtray on a visit to the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in the Seventies.

The thoughtless prank enraged friends of Playboy boss Hugh Hefner, who recalls that the legendary singer narrowly escaped serious retribution from his henchmen. The bizarre event occured when Lennon was in Southern California during his heavy-drinking 18-month separation from his wife Yoko Ono in the early Seventies, during which he was notorious for hell-raising behaviour in the company of such buddies as singer Harry Nilsson.

Hef, now 80, recalls how Lennon had accepted an invitation to visit the mansion one Sunday to watch movies and enjoy a Sunday buffet. But because of his personal circumstances, the singer was “in a very bad mood and drinking a good deal.”