A long-lost guitar has finally been discovered. Mick Taylor, the former guitarist for the Rolling Stones, who played with the band from 1969 to 1974, was recently surprised to learn that an old guitar of his, which had been stolen, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park, New York.
The lost Les Paul model was used on The Rolling Stones’ 1972 album “Exile on Main St.” It was stolen when the band’s French villa was robbed about 54 years ago. As reported by a rock historian:
“Villa Nellcôte was such an open house that, one day in September 1971, burglars walked out of the front gate with nine of [Keith] Richards’ guitars, Bobby Keys’ saxophone and Bill Wyman’s bass in broad daylight . . .The crime was reputedly carried out by [drug] dealers from Marseille who were owed money by Richards.”
In May, the Met announced a “landmark gift of more than 500 of the finest guitars from the golden age of American guitarmaking,” which included a “1959 sunburst Les Paul guitar used by Keith Richards during the Rolling Stones’ first appearance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ in 1964,” along with instruments used by Mississippi John Hurt, Roy Rogers, and others.
Marlies Damming, Mick Taylor’s business manager and partner, stated that Richards sold that Les Paul guitar to Taylor before it was stolen. She stated:
“There are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared. The interesting thing about these vintage Les Pauls (from the late 1950s) is that they are renowned for their flaming… Which is unique, like a fingerprint.”
Meanwhile, as per Page Six, “Taylor says he never received compensation for the theft and is mystified as to how his property found its way into the Met’s collection.”
