The police in New York have brought charges against three persons for their possession of one hundred pages worth of lyric notes written by Eagles vocalist Don Henley.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) of Manhattan issued a press release on Tuesday in which he said that Glenn Horowitz, 66, Craig Inciardi, 58, and Edward Kosinski, 59, had all been charged as a part of the scam.
Three Are Accused of Stealing Lyrics From Don Henley of the Eagles!
According to the records from the court case, the manuscripts were initially taken without permission by a writer who had been commissioned to compose a biography of the rock band more than four decades ago.
According to rumor, the author sold the manuscripts to Horowitz in the year 2005. The books were afterward purchased by Inciardi and Kosinski from a rare book dealer named Horowitz.
After finding that some of his manuscripts had been taken, Henley decided to take action on his own, which included filing a report with the police.
The individuals who are suspected of being involved in the alleged theft fought Henley in a struggle that lasted for years in an effort to stop him from retrieving the stolen material.
Both Horowitz and Inciardi went to the extreme of making up the history of where the manuscripts came from. The frontman was pressured into repurchasing his stolen manuscripts by Inciardi and Kosinski using a fabricated statement about the documents’ provenance.
The individuals also attempted to sell the stolen manuscripts through the auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s; however, they did not disclose any information regarding Henley’s claims to any potential buyers.
Authorities carried out a number of search warrants and recovered Henley’s stolen manuscripts, which included 84 pages of songs from the Eagles’ album “Hotel California” from 1977.
The pages contained lyrics to songs such as “Hotel California,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” and “New Kid in Town,” according to the news release.
According to the authorities, Horowitz made an additional fake statement of provenance in which he claimed that band member Glenn Frey, who had passed away in 2016, was the original owner of the stolen information.
This was Horowitz’s attempt to avoid being criminally charged for his actions. “New York is a world-class center for art and culture, and anyone who trades in cultural objects is required to adhere to the law with the utmost diligence.
“Those who would aim to undermine the public’s confidence and trust in our cultural trade for their personal ends do not have a place in this world,” Bragg said in a statement. “There is no room for those who would seek to flout the basic principles of fair dealing.”
“Despite being aware that they did not have the legal authority to do so, these defendants attempted to keep and sell these one-of-a-kind and precious manuscripts.
In order to make a profit, “he added, “they fabricated up stories regarding the provenance of the documents and their authority to retain them.”