AP file

The Beatles in 1965.

The Beatles museum in Hamburg, Germany will close at the end of this month due to a lack of interest, the NME reports.

Photos: Rare Beatles pictures

The Beatlemania museum, which has a collection of over 1,000 pieces of memorabilia, opened on the Reeperbahn strip in Hamburg in 2009. The site of the museum is located near the venues where the band played many of their earliest shows. Despite all this, the museum has had an estimated 150,000 visitors in the past three years, well below expectations of the museum owners.

Arne Bellstorf illustrates the young Beatles in 'Baby's in Black'

"In view of the high deficits, there is no solution left but closure, if you want to act responsibily," museum manager Folkert Koopmanns told the German newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost. "A privately run museum as big as Beatlemania is condemned to fail without public support. That's a fact that we fought against until enthusiasm turned into resignation -- a bitter experience."

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LONDON -- An Aston Martin once owned by George Harrison sold for $485,000 (310,000 pounds) at auction Wednesday, according to NBC News, citing British Press Association reports.

Facundo Arrizabalaga/AFP - Getty Images

An auction staff member polishes an Aston Martin DB5 that belonged to the late Beatle George Harrison. The car fetched over $480,000 at the Coys' True Greats Auciton on Wednesday at the Royal Horticultural Hall in London.

The former Beatle ordered the platinum silver DB5, which had a black Connolly leather interior, in 1965.

He packed the car with top-of-the-range extras, including chrome wire wheels with Avon tires, a heated rear windscreen, a radio and Britax safety belts.

Harrison's former wife, model Pattie Boyd, was recently photographed with the car when it was shown at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London.

It was sold to a Beatle and Aston Martin fan from Houston, Texas, who wished to remain anonymous.

The lot was part of auctioneer Coys' True Greats Auction at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster, central London.

Auctioneers said the car had just over 22,000 miles, ran well and showed no sign of "major mechanical maladies."

Chris Routledge, managing director of Coys, said: "There was a battle royal for this car which went for some 50,000 pounds ($78,000) over its estimate."

The sale price does not include a 15 percent buyer's premium.