Metropolitan Museum of Art declares resolution to the long-standing mystery surrounding Mick Taylor's missing 1959 Gibson Les Paul, belonging to The Rolling Stones.
The 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar, famously associated with the Rolling Stones, is currently owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York. The guitar was part of a large donation of vintage guitars to the museum earlier in 2025.
However, former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor is claiming that the guitar was stolen from him in 1971 while the band was recording at a mansion in the south of France. Taylor and his representatives say he bought the Les Paul from a Stones road manager before joining the band and used it extensively. His manager emphasized the guitar’s unique "flaming" finish as a way to identify it.
The Met and the provenance records they have published dispute Taylor’s ownership claim. The museum states Taylor played the guitar but never actually owned it. The guitar’s documented ownership history reportedly begins with a purchase by John Bowen in 1961 and includes a record producer named Adrian Miller as an owner in 1971. The guitar also went to auction at Christie’s and was displayed publicly and in Met exhibits for years without objections from Taylor or his team until recently.
It's not clear whether Adrian Miller bought the guitar from Keith Richards or someone else in 1971. The guitar later changed hands, ending up with Cosmo Verrico of Heavy Metal Kids in 1971, who reportedly traded it for £125 plus a 1959 Gibson ES-175 with PAFs. In 1974, Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake bought the Gibson Les Paul from Cosmo Verrico for £400. The guitar was later acquired by Jayson Kerr Dobney, the Met's curator of musical instruments, in 2019, with the help and advice of producer and guitar collector Perry Margouleff.
In 2024, billionaire businessman Dirk Ziff donated the Gibson Les Paul to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it can be found today. The Metropolitan Museum of Art claims the guitar has a long and well-documented history of ownership.
Mick Taylor's manager, Marlies Damming, has asked the Metropolitan Museum of Art to make the guitar available for inspection to confirm its provenance. our website has reached out to Mick Taylor's representatives for comment.
In summary, the 1959 Gibson Les Paul is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which rejects Mick Taylor’s claim that it was his stolen guitar, despite Taylor’s insistence that it was. The dispute between Taylor and the Met Museum continues, with Taylor seeking to confirm the guitar's provenance.
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