LONDON (AP) — It’s solely rock ‘n’ roll, but it surely’s messy.
A guitar as soon as performed by two members of the Rolling Stones is on the middle of a dispute between the band’s former guitarist Mick Taylor and the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul was donated to the Met as a part of what the New York museum calls “a landmark gift of more than 500 of the finest guitars from the golden age of American guitar making.” The donor is Dirk Ziff, a billionaire investor and guitar collector.
When the Met introduced the reward in Might, Taylor thought he acknowledged the guitar, with its distinctive “starburst” end, as an instrument he final noticed in 1971, when the Stones had been recording the album “Exile on Main St.” at Keith Richards’ rented villa within the south of France.
Within the haze of medicine and rock ‘n’ roll that pervaded the periods, a variety of devices went lacking, believed stolen.
Now, Taylor and his staff imagine it has reappeared. The Met says provenance information present no proof the guitar ever belonged to Taylor.
“This guitar has a long and well-documented history of ownership,” museum spokesperson Ann Bailis mentioned.
Taylor’s associate and enterprise supervisor, Marlies Damming, mentioned the Met ought to make the guitar “available for inspection.”
“An independent guitar expert should be able to ascertain the guitar’s provenance one way or the other,” she mentioned in an announcement Tuesday to The Related Press.
Whereas its possession is contested, there’s no disputing the instrument’s starring function in rock historical past. It was owned within the early Nineteen Sixties by Keith Richards, who performed it throughout the Rolling Stones’ first look on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. The Met says that efficiency “ignited interest in this legendary model.”
The guitar – nicknamed the “Keithburst” – was additionally performed by guitar legends Eric Clapton and Jimmy Web page. Taylor says he acquired it from Richards in 1967, two years earlier than he joined the Stones, changing authentic member Brian Jones. Jones died in 1969.
Taylor left the band in 1974, reuniting with them for the Stones’ fiftieth anniversary tour in 2012-2013.
Jeff Allen, who was Taylor’s supervisor and publicist for many years from the Nineties, mentioned Taylor “told me he got it as a present from Keith,” and in addition talked about the theft.
“Mick did tell me that the guitar solo that he became quite famous for, on ‘Can’t You Hear Me Knocking,’ was with the Les Paul that got stolen,” Allen mentioned.
The Met’s information say the Les Paul was owned by Richards till 1971, when it was acquired by report producer and supervisor Adrian Miller, who died in 2006.
The guitar has modified fingers a number of instances since then, and reappeared twice in public.
It was put up for public sale by Christie’s in 2004, when it didn’t promote. Ziff purchased it in 2016, and loaned it to the Met in 2019 for an exhibition titled “Play it Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll.”
It is unclear what’s going to occur subsequent. The Met, which plans to open a brand new gallery devoted to its assortment of American guitars, says it has not been contacted by Taylor or his representatives.
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Related Press author Jocelyn Noveck in New York contributed to this story.
