A potentially stolen Rolling Stones guitar, yes, that guitar, has turned up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of all places. And now the man it used to belong to wants answers.
The guitar in question isn’t some minor relic from the bowels of a forgotten tour truck. It’s the 1959 Gibson Les Paul once owned by Keith Richards, later bought by Mick Taylor, played on some of the Stones’ most legendary shows, and as if this story wasn’t already soaked in star power, used by Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page in the mid-’60s.
In other words: This isn’t a guitar. It’s rock history with strings.
Taylor’s manager, Marlies Damming, dropped the bombshell via PageSix, revealing the Les Paul mysteriously reappeared in a batch of 500 guitars donated to the Met by wealthy collector Dirk Ziff in May. The museum hailed the donation as “trailblazing and transformative.” For Taylor, it was more “bewildering and borderline insulting.” He never got compensation for the theft, and now, decades later, his main axe turns up as a shiny showpiece in a museum that apparently didn’t bother to ask a single follow-up question.
The guitar vanished in 1971, while the Stones were holed up in Villa Nellcôte recording Exile on Main St. Rock folklore, and let's face it, Stones lore is often indistinguishable from myth, suggests it was swiped by drug dealers miffed at unpaid bills. It’s the kind of story you’d dismiss if it wasn’t the Rolling Stones.
Guitar experts have verified its identity through post-sale modifications and the flame maple top’s unique grain, described as the Les Paul equivalent of a fingerprint.
“There are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared.”
And now? The guitar hangs behind glass, revered as art – but to Taylor, it’s a piece of stolen soul. One that deserves more than a plaque. One that demands justice.
