PARIS--Jacques Volcouve was a little boy when he first heard 'A Hard Day's Night'. Now aged 60 and a self-styled "Beatles historian", he is preparing to auction off a collection of 15,000 items he has amassed on the legendary band over half a century.
"Starting from 1967, I gave myself an absolutely impossible mission: own everything concerning the Beatles," said Volcouve, whose trove will go on sale on March 18 at auction house Drouot in Paris.
"Everything that I could find - even when I would see a newspaper with three lines on the Beatles, I would buy the newspaper," he said.
Statuettes of the Fab Four, a metallic John Lennon figurine, rare album editions and black and white photos are among the objects he has accumulated, in addition to books, photographs, clippings, compact and laser discs, tapes and other memorabilia.
