NEW YORK (AP) — The manager of former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor expressed shock upon learning a guitar stolen in 1972 from the band was found among 500 donated to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in May.
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul in question was previously owned by Keith Richards before Taylor acquired it from him in 1967. Richards played the guitar during The Rolling Stones’ performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964.
Taylor was seen with the guitar at many performances, including the infamous Altamont Speedway event in 1969. The instrument was also played by Jimmy Page, when the Led Zeppelin icon was still a session musician, and by Eric Clapton at a Cream concert in 1966 after his own guitar was stolen.
The guitar was among nine instruments stolen from Villa Nellcôte, the French mansion where the Stones recorded “Exile on Main St.” in 1971. Rock folklore suggests local drug dealers carried out the theft after Richards failed to pay them.
Marlies Damming, Taylor’s partner and manager, claimed the Les Paul was part of a collection donated to the Met by collector Dirk Ziff in May. The museum described the collection as a “trailblazing and transformative gift” that positioned it as “the epicenter for the appreciation and study of the American guitar.”
“There are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared,” Damming said in a statement to Page Six. She noted that vintage Les Pauls are known for their unique flaming, likening it to a fingerprint.
Guitar Player magazine noted the guitar had post-purchase modifications that support its identification as Taylor’s. “The Les Paul’s unique woodgrain pattern acts as a fingerprint. In this case, dark figuring near the cutaway, along the edge of the top’s lower bout, is key to its identity,” the magazine stated.
A source told Page Six, “Taylor says he never received compensation for the theft and is mystified as to how his property ended up in the Met’s collection.”
The guitar, also featured on The Rolling Stones’ 1970 album “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out,” would have been easy to steal from Villa Nellcôte due to lax security. It is theorized that the band was watching TV in another room when the collection of instruments, including one of Bill Wyman’s basses, was taken.
