“Mick Taylor is mystified as to how his property found its way into the Met’s collection”: A stolen Rolling Stones ’59 Les Paul that has been missing since 1972 has surfaced – in a museum

Keith Richards .

The Met’s new exhibition of guitars has become the center of international intrigue, after a 1959 Les Paul Standard that had been stolen from Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor in the early 1970s mysteriously re-surfaced as part of the collection.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it had come into the possession of a 500-strong arsenal of guitars back in May. Included in the hefty donation was a Bigsby-loaded 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard used by Keith Richards during the band’s legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.