Hotel California: Three accused of trying to sell the stolen manuscript of the song

The New York District Attorney three people accused, one of whom is the curator of the rock and roll museum, for attempting to sell handwritten notes from the American group The Eagles, including the famous song Hotel California, which defendants knew was stolen in the 1970s.

According to Southern New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the defendants they had 100 handwritten pages from the founder of the rock group, don Henleyincluding the songs Life in the fast lane Y New guy in town.

The total value of the manuscripts is estimated to be would exceed the million dollars, according to a statement by the United States Attorney’s Office. In the indictment, prosecutors say so the original writings were “illegally removed” in the late 1970s by a writer who had been hired “to write a biography of the band”.

The unnamed biographer

The biographer, whose name has not yet been revealed by the Prosecutor’s Office, sold the manuscripts in 2005 to Glenn Horowitza rare bookseller, who, in turn, reached a sales agreement with two other people, Craig Iciardi, curator of the Rock and Roll Museum, and Edward Kosinskithe three defendants.

In the memory of the Prosecutor’s Office it is claimed that when Iciardi and Edward attempted to sell part of the manuscripts, Don Henley was aware of their intentions and, on the one hand, filed a complaint while, on the other, he informed the defendants that the documents they were stolen and asked them to return them.

Since then, the three defendants have not only continued to try to sell the rock group’s material and prevent Henley from recovering it, but, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, they tried to create false documents to justify an alleged legal provenance of files.

To the best auction houses

The prosecutor’s statement indicates that they have also contacted auction houses such as Christie’s Y Sotheby’s, to those who have not denounced the claims of the founder of the Eagles.

“New York is a world center for art and culture, and those dealing with cultural artifacts must strictly abide by the law,” said Attorney Bragg, quoted in the note.

“The defendants iThey tried to stay and sell these unique and valuable manuscripts, even knowing they had no right to do so. They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to own them for profit, “she added.

A worldwide hit song

California hotels reached the top of Billboard Hot 100 for a week in May 1977. Three months after its release, the single was gold certificate Why the sale of 1,000,000 discs.

The Eagles also won a Grammy for best album of the year in 1978. In 2009, the song California hotels has been certified Platinum (Digital Sales Award) for another millions of digital downloads.

In the magazine’s list of the 500 best songs of all time rolling stone It is located in the forty-ninth (49th) position and is also included in the Rock hall of fame CometsOne of the “500 songs that made rock and roll”.

Source: EFE

wd