The manager of former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor reported shock at discovering a guitar stolen from the band in 1972 was found among 500 donated to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in May.
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul in question was once owned by Keith Richards before Taylor bought it from his future bandmate in 1967. Richards played it during the Stones’ Ed Sullivan Show appearance in 1964.
Taylor was seen with the instrument at many shows, including the controversial Altamont Speedway event in 1969. It 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 had been stolen.
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The guitar was among nine stolen from Villa Nellcôte, the French mansion where the Stones were recording Exile on Main St. in 1971. Rock folklore suggests the theft was carried out by local drug dealers after Richards failed to pay them for their wares.
Taylor’s partner and manager, Marlies Damming, has now claimed the Les Paul was part of a collection given to the Met by collector Dirk Ziff in May – a move the museum described as a “trailblazing and transformative gift” that made the establishment “the epicenter for the appreciation and study of the American guitar.”
Damming said in a statement via PageSix: “There are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared.”
Mick Taylor’s Guitar Would Have Been Easy to Steal
She added: “The interesting thing about these vintage Les Pauls [of that era], is that they are renowned for their flaming… which is unique, like a fingerprint.”
Guitar Player noted that the instrument had post-purchase modifications that helped provie it was Taylor’s, adding: “The Les Paul’s unique woodgrain pattern acts as a fingerprint. In the case of this particular example, dark figuring near the cutaway, along the edge of the top’s lower bout, is a key to its identity.”
A source told PageSix: “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.”
The guitar – also heard on the Stones’ 1970 album Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out – would have been easy to steal from Villa Nellcôte. The security was so lapse that it’s been theorized the band were watching TV in another room when the collection of instruments, including one of Bill Wyman’s basses, was liberated.
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Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles
