A donation of 500 guitars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art this past May was perceived as a particular exciting addition to the collection—so exciting, in fact, that the donation even announced via a long-form profile in the New Yorker. But that donation may include one object that may have made it into the donation by ill means.
In a New York Post story published this weekend, a manager for former Rolling Stones musician Mick Taylor claimed that the Met was now in possession of his stolen Les Paul guitar. That guitar was taken from the Rolling Stones’s French villa, in Nellcôte, in 1971, the year when thieves reportedly absconded with nine of Keith Richards’ guitars, among other instruments.
The 500 guitars were given to the Met by collector Dirk Ziff. At the time, Met director Max Hollein said the guitars composed “a trailblazing and transformative gift, positioning the Museum to be the epicenter for the appreciation and study of the American guitar.”
In 2027, the museum plans to open a permanent gallery about American guitars, with some works from the gift on view here.
It isn’t clear how from the Post story Taylor discovered that his guitar was held by the Met. The guitars are not currently on view, and a complete checklist of them has not been released to the public. The Met’s release did mention Keith Richards, another Rolling Stones member, but the museum said it had a 1959 Les Paul played by him in 1964. Taylor was not mentioned in that announcement.
But Taylor’s manager, Marlies Damming, claimed that the Met did have Taylor’s guitar. “There are numerous photos of Mick Taylor playing this Les Paul, as it was his main guitar until it disappeared,” Demming told the Post. “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.”
The report also cited an unnamed source, who said, “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.”
A Met spokesperson did not respond to request for comment.
