Back in March, criminal charges against former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia dealer Edward Kosinski, charged with conspiring to possess stolen property in relation to the attempted auction of Eagles‘ lyrics, were dropped.
Don Henley is not taking that decision sitting down, having filed a lawsuit Thursday to regain ownership of the property.
His lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, says, “Don Henley has filed suit in a New York federal court for return of property that was stolen from him —his private handwritten notes and lyrics to the iconic songs from the Hotel California album.
“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit.”
The New York District Attorney’s Office in New York still has the property pending a decision over its rightful owner.
Henley’s lawsuit goes onto state, “Because Kosinski and Inciardi have wrongly claimed ownership of Henley’s lyric sheets, a declaration from this Court that Henley is the lawful owner is needed to supply ‘satisfactory proof of his title’ and facilitate the District Attorney’s return of Henley’s lyric sheets to Henley.
“Because Kosinski and Inciardi have also claimed title over Henley’s lyric sheets, the issue must be decided in a civil court with appropriate jurisdiction.”
Henley has demanded a jury trial.
To quickly review this case, the manuscript at the center of this case was stolen by Eagles biographer Ed Sanders in the late ’70s who sold it to Glenn Horowitz, a dealer of high-end rare books and private archives of writers, including Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe.
Horowitz then sold it to Craig Inciardi, curator and director of acquisitions at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Edward Kosinski who owns Gotta Have Rock and Roll, a memorabilia business in New Jersey.
They in turn tried to sell it back to Henley, as well as to Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses, claiming they received the manuscript from the late Glenn Frey.
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