The Met challenges Mick Taylor’s claim that he once owned the 1959 “Keithburst” Les Paul which appears in new exhibit
Last month, after it was revealed that 500 of the “finest guitars from the golden age of American guitar making” had been donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, former Rolling Stone Mick Taylor claimed the collection included a 1959 sunburst Gibson Les Paul stolen from him in the early ‘70s.
In a well-documented story, the “Keithburst” Les Paul – which was played by Keith Richards during the band’s 1964 Ed Sullivan Show appearance, as well as by Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page – was taken along with eight other guitars from Villa Nellcôte, the mansion on the French Riviera where the Stones recorded their 1972 album, Exile on Main St.
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A source last month said Mick Taylor was “mystified as to how his property found its way into the Met’s collection”.
Now, while it agrees Taylor played the instrument in the past, the Met now contests that he never actually owned it, along with certain elements of his version of events.
We do know some of the guitar’s history. It went up for auction via Christie’s – but failed to sell – and appeared on the cover of its catalogue in 2004, and featured in a Met exhibition in 2019. The rest, however, remains hazy. As Guitar World notes, there were no claims during either of these events from Mick Taylor or his team.
According to the Met’s version of events, the “Keithburst” Les Paul was actually the property of Keith Richards until 1971, and wasn’t one of the nine guitars stolen from Villa Nellcôte.
The Met lists Adrian Miller as the guitar’s owner in 1971, but stops short of mentioning how he acquired the guitar. Miller later sold it to Heavy Metal Kids’ Cosmo Verrico in 1971, who tells the New York Times he “can’t recall how Miller acquired the guitar”.
Also per the Met’s claim, after the Keithburst Les Paul failed to sell at the 2004 Christie’s auction, it was bought in 2006 by Peter Svensson, a music producer from Sweden. It was later bought by billionaire businessman Dirk Ziff, who lent it to the Met in 2019 for its Play it Loud exhibition.
Now, the New York Times says it has received a message from Mick Taylor’s business manager Marlies Damming, which reads: “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.”
Guitar.com has reached out to Mick Taylor’s team and the Metropolitan Museum of Art for comment.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
