The New York State Department on Tuesday charged three people with illegally possessing and selling about 100 pages of handwritten notes and lyrics for the famous Eagles album “Hotel California.”
According to the indictment, the three men – Glenn Horowitz (66), Craig Inciardi (58) and Edward Kosinski (59) – knew the documents had been stolen, but nevertheless conspired to sell them. The three say they are innocent.
The notes and texts of Eagles co-founder Don Henley are said to have a combined value of more than a million dollars (about a million euros). They include handwritten lyrics from the world hits “Hotel California” and “Life in the Fast Lane”.
Stolen late 1970s
According to court documents, the men told auction houses and potential buyers that they obtained the original tape material from Henley. They made false documents about it. In reality, a biographer from the band stole the manuscripts in the late 1970s. She sold them to Horowitz, who in turn sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski. Henley called the police when the band members found out that Inciardi and Kosinski had the documents.
“New York is a global center for arts and culture, and anyone wishing to trade in cultural items here must follow the law closely,” said prosecutor Alvin Bragg. “These defendants possess unique and valuable manuscripts, when they knew they had no right to do so. They made up stories about the provenance of the documents so that they could make a profit.”
Lawyers for the three defendants promised “to vigorously fight these false charges”.
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