Three men accused of obtaining and trying to sell about 100 pages of handwritten notes from the Eagles album “Hotel California,” which they knew had been stolen, were charged on Tuesday, Alvin Bragg, District Attorney (DA) for Manhattan, New York, said.
Craig Inciardi, 58, and Edward Kosinski, 59, were slapped with criminal charges, including possession of stolen property, while Glenn Horowitz, age 66, was charged with attempted criminal possession of stolen property. All three men pleaded not guilty.
With the growth of the collector’s market, some items belonging to music and sports stars are becoming more and more expensive.
The sale value of the 100 pages of notes and lyrics that Don Henley, one of the founders of the Eagles, wrote for the album Hotel California, including those for the hit song by the same name and Life in the Fast Lane, is estimated at more than 1 million dollars, DA Bragg wrote in his statement.
Even though the suspects knew the documents had been stolen, they tried to sell the manuscripts, fabricated false provenance documents and lied to auction houses, potential buyers and the police about the origin of the documents, Bragg said.
One of the suspects, Craig Inciardi, is an employee, “with curatorial responsibilities,” of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, the institution confirmed to AFP.
