It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a guitar case. A 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar that former Rolling Stone guitarist Mick Taylor claims was once his has turned up at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art some 54 years after it may have been stolen from a villa in the South of France.

Keith Richards played the 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar when the band made their debut on 'The Ed Sullivan Show' in 1964, which was then part of a 2019 exhibit

When the Met announced the gift in May, Taylor thought he recognized the guitar, with its distinctive “starburst” finish, as an instrument he last saw in 1971, when the Stones were recording the album “Exile on Main St.” at Keith Richards’ rented villa in the south of France.

A guitar once played by two of the Rolling Stones is the source of a dispute between the band’s former guitarist and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A 1959 Les Paul guitar, once played by two members of the Rolling Stones,