They were shaggy and, to Ed Sullivan’s mind, under-shampooed, but the Rolling Stones cemented their arrival in the United States when they appeared on his variety show in October 1964, accompanied by screaming fans and aided by one Les Paul guitar in the hands of Keith Richards.
Guitar buffs have tracked the instrument for years. Eric Clapton is said to have played it. Jimmy Page was photographed with it. Bernie Marsden of Whitesnake owned it.
So it is perhaps no surprise that the 1959 Gibson — with its gleaming sunburst finish, mahogany body and maple top — would end up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gift of a collector who this year generously donated 500 vintage guitars.
“These guitars are examples of outstanding artistry and craftsmanship as well as visually powerful tools of expression and distinction,” the museum said in a statement announcing the gift.
But in recent weeks, a representative for Mick Taylor, 76, a former guitarist for the Stones, surfaced to say that Taylor was surprised to learn that the guitar was in the museum.
Taylor’s account is that he purchased the guitar from a road manager for the Stones while playing with John Mayall, then brought it with him in 1969 when he joined the Stones for five years. His version has been recounted by music journalists, guitar aficionados and a Stones historian.
Taylor’s manager, Marlies Damming, said in a statement last month that at some point the guitar had “disappeared.”
But the museum maintains this account is all bunk. The Met says Taylor played the instrument, but never owned it, and that for decades the guitar has had a public history without apparently drawing a claim from Taylor. In 2004, as noted in the museum’s provenance, the guitar went up for auction at Christie’s and appeared on the cover of the catalog. In 2019, it was featured in a Met exhibition.
“This guitar has a long and well-documented history of ownership,” the museum said in a statement.
The Les Paul in the Met is one of a number made by the Gibson company that came to be known as “bursts” because of their blazing coloring. Richards brought it with him when the Stones traveled to New York in 1964 to play two songs on Sullivan’s show: a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Around and Around” and their version of “Time Is on My Side.” Richards, then 20, wore a black suit, but no tie, onstage as he strummed the Les Paul that came to be known as the “Keithburst.”
Taylor’s later ownership of the “Keithburst” is recounted in a 700-page anthology of Stones instruments, “Rolling Stones Gear,” published in 2013 by Andy Babiuk, an American musician and author.
There is no debate that Taylor played the instrument (and others) during his years with the Stones, including at his 1969 Hyde Park debut with the band. That session turned into a tribute for the guitarist he replaced, Brian Jones, who had died days earlier.
In his book, Babiuk says “Taylor’s ’59 Gibson Les Paul” was among the eight guitars stolen in 1971 when the Stones spent the summer at Villa Nellcôte, a mansion on the French Rivera near Nice. The storied home, with 16 bedrooms, became something of a recording studio for “Exile on Main St.,” the album many consider the band’s finest.
But the Met says Richards held onto the Les Paul until 1971 and that its own research suggests the guitar was not taken in that theft.
Its provenance, though, does have something of a gap. It lists Adrian Miller as the owner of the Les Paul in 1971, but it does not say that he bought the guitar from Richards or specify how Miller, who died in 2006, acquired it. Richards could not be reached for comment.
The Met provenance does say that Miller then sold the guitar in 1971 to Cosmo Verrico, a guitarist for the British rock band Heavy Metal Kids. By email, Verrico said he can’t recall how Miller acquired the guitar.
The museum’s provenance tracks all the subsequent owners and notes the very public attempted sale of the instrument at Christie’s in 2004. The bidding did not reach the price sought, but the guitar was purchased two years later by Peter Svensson, a Swedish producer. Ten years after that, Dirk Ziff, an investor and billionaire, bought it with the help and advice of Perry Margouleff, a music producer and guitar collector.
Ziff lent the guitar to the Met in 2019 for its exhibition “Play It Loud,” which later moved to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Richards sat for interviews promoting the exhibit, the museum said, and was well aware that his old Les Paul would be on display.
Taylor’s representatives surfaced last month to express what they described to The New York Post as his surprise that the guitar, with its signature flaming wood-grain finish, was in the museum. But they have not made Taylor available for an interview.
Taylor, viewed by critics as a skilled guitarist known for his blues style, largely faded from the public eye after leaving the Stones in 1974. In a 2009 interview with the Sunday Mail, he said he feared he would have died if he had stayed with the band because its lifestyle would have only fueled his heroin addiction at the time.
In 2012, he joined his former band members on the Stones’ 50 & Counting tour, marking five decades of music. A few years later, though, he publicly critiqued the Stones on Facebook for not inviting him to a gallery opening of “Exhibitionism,” a Rolling Stones exhibit at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
In recent weeks, Damming and Rhonda Palmer, who describes herself as Damming’s personal assistant, have responded to several inquiries from The New York Times, but they have not provided Taylor’s account in any detail.
“One of our advisers has recommended holding off on publicity right now,” Palmer said in one email.
Damming has not gone completely silent though. In recent days, she sent an email to The Times that said, “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.” The museum said it has not heard from anyone associated with Taylor.
Last month, Damming shared a video on her Facebook account from Happy Mag, an Australian arts and culture magazine. A montage of Taylor was accompanied by scrolling text.
“A long lost piece of rock ’n’ roll history has resurfaced, decades after it vanished,” the post said.
But, as is evident in the several public appearances the guitar has made over the years, the Les Paul may have once gone missing, but it had not fully disappeared.
Michaela Towfighi is a Times arts and culture reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early career journalists.
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