A guitar, once played by Keith Richards, is now at the center of a high-profile ownership dispute between The Met and former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.

The museum's provenance does leave somewhat of a gap, however. It lists Adrian Miller as the Les Paul's owner in 1971, but there's no indication of how he acquired the guitar. Miller went on to sell it to Heavy Metal Kids' Cosmo Verrico in 1971, who, according to correspondence with The New York Times, “can't recall how Miller acquired the guitar.”

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,

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.

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,