Illusionist Uri Geller says he was buyer of John Lennon’s glasses for £40,000

The spoon-bending magician and mystic Uri Geller has revealed he is the buyer behind a pair of John Lennon’s round glasses at auction, which sold for £40,000 on Wednesday.

The blue-tinted spectacles were sold in an auction on Wednesday at Farleigh golf club in Surrey. They were given by the former Beatle to a man from Surrey as a birthday present more than 55 years ago.

Catherine Southon Auctioneers said the glasses had been sold to an anonymous overseas buyer, who revealed himself as Geller on Thursday. He told the BBC he was “elated” with his purchase.

He said: “John Lennon and I were very good friends while we were living in New York in the 1970s.

“I knew I had to buy these glasses whatever. I would have gone up to £500,000. Glasses are a passage into our soul, into our psyche.”

Geller said he had “an amazing connection” with Lennon, who died after being shot outside his home in New York in December 1980.

The showman, now in his 70s, added: “John changed my life as that’s where I learned about spirituality. He believed in UFOs and I believed in UFOs and he was fascinated by my alien collection. He gave me an alien egg.”

The glasses will be displayed prominently in the John Lennon section of his museum in Tel Aviv alongside the alien egg.

Catherine Southon said the singer gifted them to their seller – identified only as Michael – at Abbey Road Studios in 1968. Michael said his then girlfriend, Penny, was friends with lots of musicians, and he was invited to the Beatles’ recording studios as a birthday treat.

Related: John Lennon guitar sells for $2.9m, breaking Beatles auction record

According to the auction house conducting the sale, Michael said: “I picked up a pair of glasses from a piano. Penny said: ‘Don’t touch.’

“John Lennon turned around and said, ‘He’s all right. In fact, he can have them. Happy birthday!’”

He added: “They are not John Lennon’s prescription glasses, but he gave them to me and wished me happy birthday, so that is good enough for me.”

Michael also took 33 black and white photographs of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and George Martin in 1968 and 1969 when he visited Abbey Road, which sold for £2,600.

Other images were taken on the same day as the famous photoshoot for the Abbey Road album, which depicted the Beatles walking across a nearby zebra crossing.