Representatives for Mick Taylor, the Rolling Stones’ former guitarist, said the Les Paul was stolen from him decades ago. The museum says he never owned it and has not made a claim.

When the Rolling Stones played The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Keith Richards played a 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar with a sunburst finish — hence the instrument’s eventual nickname, the Keithburst. The appearance helped to popularize the Les Paul,

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is fending off claims from former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, who says the museum is displaying his long-lost 1959 Gibson Les Paul. The storied guitar—famous for its sunburst finish and ties to Keith Richards,

In a New York Post story published on July 10, 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,