Leonard Cohen’s Letters, Lyrics, and Hair Among Items Headed to Auction

An array of items once belonging to late Canadian musician Leonard Cohen are going up for sale next month, with the likes of notebooks, jewelry, hats, and even his hair going under the hammer.

The auction takes place on Feb. 28 in Los Angeles via Julien’s Auctions, with a total of 164 items up for sale. The items themselves largely come from the collection of Cohen’s longtime friend Aviva Layton, and romantic and creative partner Anjani Thomas.

The collection includes a myriad typed and handwritten works from Cohen, including lyrics, letters, poems, postcards, and manuscripts. While many of these items are estimated to fetch in the low thousands, one of the most impressive items is a 2007 personal composition notebook which features 76 pages of notes, poems, and drafts of lyrics. It’s estimated to sell for between $100,000 and $150,000.

“Perhaps the most unusual item is the notebook we shared containing snippets of Leonard’s verses in the works, a poem for me, and a list of our bets and debts,” Thomas said of the piece. 

“We used to bet on any number of things and the stakes were ridiculously high but I never collected on them. We’d bet on things like whether or not Phil Spector would go to jail, and I said he would. This is the only notebook of Leonard’s in private hands outside of the Cohen Family Trust Archives, and I imagine those will never be available for purchase.”

Other items up for auction include Cohen’s Greek Fisherman’s “Magic Writing” cap, which dates back to his time spent in Greece in the ‘60s where Layton and her late ex-husband – poet Irving Layton – would visit him.

“Leonard was wearing his cap and Irving said, ‘I write poetry, but I’d like to write songs and make tons of money like you,’” Layton told Rolling Stone. “And Leonard said, ‘I’ve got this cap, it’s a magic cap. I’ve written all my early songs wearing this cap. I’m going to give it to you and you’ll be able to write songs and make a lot of money too.’ Unfortunately it only seemed to work for Leonard.”

Arguably, one of the most interesting pieces is a small locket which contains a piece of Cohen’s hair. Despite the personal connection to the artist, it has a starting bid of $25 with an estimated sale price of between $400 and $600.

“We were cutting his [Leonard’s] hair one day, and he had just given me this locket for my birthday, and I thought it was a traditional thing to put a snippet of hair in a locket,” Thomas explained. “It’s a very olden-times custom.”

Cohen passed away in November 2016, just 17 days after the release of You Want It Darker. The record would peak at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, while a posthumous album – Thanks for the Dance – would arrive in 2019.

According to Thomas, any diehard Cohen fans eager to get their hands on items once belonging to the late musician are urged to act quickly.

“The [official Cohen] archives vacuumed up anything that came in the market rather quickly,” she told Rolling Stone. “So there isn’t a lot available, nor will there be. So this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.”