In January, 2001 an office cleaner threw out an estimate $1.6 million in priceless Beatles photographs, including some irreplacable originals from a 1963 photo session that were used on the cover of their first official album, “Please Please Me.” The material was in EMI’s west London office stacked in three boxes with a little note on top saying “not rubbish do not remove.” It’s possible the note fell off or that the cleaning person was from another country and just assumed the note said to get rid of the stuff. It was thrown on the trash pile and compacted, and now the company that controls the rights to the Beatles’ stuff is suing the cleaning company:

Boxes of photographic material including the only remaining original transparencies from a 1963 Beatles photo session were thrown out by a cleaner despite a note warning they weren’t trash, a lawsuit filed in Britain’s High Court claims.

Apple Corps. Ltd., guardian of the Fab Four’s commercial interests, and EMI Records Ltd., which distributes the Beatles’ music, filed the lawsuit against the cleaning company, Crystal Services PLC, earlier this year.

The lawsuit, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, says more than 450 photographs, negatives and transparencies were lost, most of which were EMI’s photographic archive from 1997.

Some of the material may be replaceable, the claim acknowledges, but one box included seven transparencies of Beatles photos taken in 1963 by Angus McBean. The photos were used on the cover of “Please Please Me,” the Beatles’ first official album, and the “Red Album,” a compilation released in 1973.

They were “the only remaining original material from the photography from this session, and were historically important and valuable,” the lawsuit says.

It asks for the market value of the Beatles’ material, which is estimated at $1.4 million, as well as other costs.

And maybe not so coincidentally, the head of Apple Corps. Ltd., Neil Aspinall, has just stepped down. Aspinall used to be the driver and road manager for the Beatles and he was sometimes called “the fifth Beatle,” along with about three other guys that worked closely with them. While it seems suspicious that Aspinall would leave right around the time this lawsuit was announced, it is said that he was planning to leave for a while and that it was amicable. He fought with computer giant Apple Inc. to keep the rights to the name, and a settlement was reached in February. He is retiring at 64.

Thanks to Fark for these two stories and Beatles.com for the header image. Those guys sure were dreamy.