(Getty Images/ Jan Olofsson/ Redferns)
The estate of Jimi Hendrix is suing Tucson, Arizona-based guitar store owner Harvey Moltz, for a Black Widow guitar it claims was stolen from Jimi Hendrix.
According to court documents filed by Experience Hendrix LLC, the company that runs Hendrix’s estate, the guitar that Moltz purchased last year for $80,000 was obtained unlawfully. Ed McPherson, Hendrix’s estate attorney says that the guitar, which is valued between $750,000 and $1million, was stolen by Sheldon Reynolds. Reynolds, a former member of Earth, Wind, and Fire, also happens to be the ex-husband of Hendrix’s adopted sister, Janie Hendrix.
The guitar was in Hendrix’s possession when he died in 1970, and was bequeathed to his father, who passed in 2002. The Black Widow guitar was then turned over to Experience Hendrix LLC, which is headed by Janie Hendrix.
Experience Hendrix LLC did not realize that the guitar was not in their possession until sometime in 2014, when an auction house called to authenticate the item.
“The guitar is priceless to our family,” Janie said in an email statement to the Arizona Daily Star “It is one of the few guitars that came home after Jimi passed away. We just want our guitar returned safely and back where it belongs.”
Todd Jackson, a Tucson-based lawyer who is representing Harvey Moltz maintains that his client “purchased the guitar in good faith from a private seller, without knowledge of competing claims of ownership.”