A guitar stolen from The Rolling Stones greater than 50 years in the past has resurfaced in a group just lately acquired by the New York Metropolitan Museum of Artwork.
The instrument in query is a 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul Customary, which – on the time of the housebreaking – had been owned by former guitarist Mick Taylor, who had beforehand bought it from Keith Richards in 1967.
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On the time of its theft, the instrument had already been a part of musical historical past, having been performed by Richards through the Stones’ debut look on The Ed Sullivan Present in October 1964, and later by Taylor throughout their notorious Altamont Free Live performance in December 1969. Famed guitarists corresponding to Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page had been additionally mentioned to have performed the instrument as properly.
Nevertheless, the situation of the guitar has remained a thriller since September 1971, having been reportedly stolen through the band’s recording classes for 1972’s Exile on Essential St. at Villa Nellcôte on France’s Côte d’Azur.
The story goes that the theft occurred in broad daylight whereas occupants of Villa Nellcôte watched TV, having reportedly been carried out by Marseille drug sellers that Richards was mentioned to have owed cash to. The theft in the end resulted within the lack of 9 guitars, a saxophone belonging to Bobby Keys, and Invoice Wyman’s bass guitar.
The path was left chilly till Could of this yr, when the New York Metropolitan Museum of Artwork announced it had obtained a “landmark reward” of greater than 500 guitars from the “golden age of American guitar making,” consisting of devices made between 1920 and 1970.
Notably, the Met’s personal announcement of the gathering additionally included particular point out of Taylor’s long-lost Les Paul and its famed look on The Ed Sullivan Present.
Now, in a press release shared to Page Six, Taylor’s enterprise supervisor and companion, Marlies Damming, has claimed that the “flaming” sample on the physique of the guitar confirms it as Taylor’s elusive instrument.
“There are quite a few photographs of Mick Taylor enjoying this Les Paul, because it was his most important guitar till it disappeared,” Damming defined. “The fascinating factor about these classic Les Pauls (from the late Nineteen Fifties), is that they’re famend for his or her flaming, which is exclusive, like a fingerprint.”
Moreover, an unnamed supply said that Taylor is “mystified as to how his property discovered its manner into the Met’s assortment,” and famous the musician had “by no means obtained compensation for the theft.”