One of America’s most hallowed art institutions is locked in a row with a former member of one of Britain’s biggest rock bands, The Rolling Stones, over the origins of a distinctive 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar.
A few months ago, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it had received a historic gift of more than 500 guitars belonging to some of the 20th century’s most influential musicians, including Mississippi John Hurt and Leo Fender.
At the time, Met director Max Hollein said the guitars comprised a “trailblazing and transformative gift, positioning the Museum to be the epicentre for the appreciation and study of the American guitar”.
However, it is a 1959 Les Paul that once belonged to Keith Richards – with a signature sunburst finish and mahogany body – that is generating the most noise.
Shortly after the Met’s announcement, representatives for former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor said he was surprised that the guitar had found its way into the collection.
Taylor’s manager, Marlies Damming, told Page Six: “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 is that they are renowned for their flaming… which is unique, like a fingerprint.”
However, the Met has claimed that, according to its own research, Taylor might have played the guitar but he never actually owned it. It lists Adrian Miller as the owner in 1971, but did not say how he acquired the instrument. That same year, the guitar was sold to Cosmo Verrico of the rock band Heavy Metal Kids.
Stones guitarist Richards wielded the instrument when the band made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 – a moment that cemented their arrival in the US.
Four years later, Taylor, who at the time was still playing with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, bought the guitar from the Stones’ road manager Ian Stewart.
Taylor’s version of events – that he brought the guitar with him when he joined the Stones for five years – has been recounted by journalists, guitar experts as well as a Stones biographer.
Some accounts have suggested that the 1959 Les Paul was among the instruments that were stolen by burglars who broke into the Villa Nellcôte in Villefranch-sur-Mer, near Nice, where the band were staying while working on their album Exile on Main St.
The 1971 robbery saw thieves walk away with nine guitars, including Bill Wyman’s bass and a saxophone belonging to Bobby Keys.
The Les Paul was put up for auction at Christie’s in 2004 but did not sell; it was purchased two years later by Peter Svensson, a Swedish producer. In 2016, it was bought by investor and billionaire Dirk Ziff, aided by music producer and guitar collector Perry Margouleff.
It also featured in a Met exhibition, Play It Loud, in 2019 . The museum said the guitar was lent to them by Ziff.
Damming recently sent an email to the New York Times that said: “We would like the Metropolitan Museum to make the guitar available so that we can inspect it, and confirm its provenance one way or the other.”
The Met told the publication that it has not heard from anyone associated with Taylor.
It plans to open a permanent gallery in 2027 about American guitars, which will include some instruments among the 500 donated.
Taylor has largely remained out of the public eye since leaving the Stones in 1974. In a 2009 interview with the Mail on Sunday, he said he had feared that he would die if he stayed with the band, as their lifestyle would have fuelled his heroin addiction at the time.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Taylor, The Rolling Stones and the Met Museum for comment.
