In the late 1970s, as Southern California rock band The Eagles sailed into superstardom, one of the band’s main songwriters generated piles of handwritten lyrics and notes — including words for FM radio staples like “Hotel California.”
And then the papers disappeared.
Nearly five decades later, Glenn Horowitz, a New York dealer of rare books, and two other men have been charged in the Manhattan Supreme Court with conspiracy to sell about 100 pages of the stolen notes written by an Eagles frontman, Don henley. to law enforcement and making up stories about the provenance of the papers, which are estimated to be around $1 million.
“This action reveals the truth about the sale of music memorabilia of highly personal, stolen items hidden behind a facade of legitimacy,” said Irving Azoff, Mr Henley’s manager. “Nobody has the right to sell illegally acquired property or make a profit from the outright theft of irreplaceable pieces of music history.”
One of those accused is Mr. Horowitz, 66, a prolific dealer who helped create a frothy market in writer’s archives, assembling filing cabinets of manuscripts, drafts, letters, and ephemera into a cohesive and marketable whole. He placed the papers of Norman Mailer, Gabriel García Márquez, Tom Wolfe, Alice Walker and others in leading university libraries, as well as making big deals with musicians: In 2016, he sold Bob Dylan’s vast archives to two Oklahoma institutions for an estimated sum. as high as $20 million.
Attorneys for Mr. Horowitz and the other defendants denied the charges. “The DA’s office is alleging crime where it doesn’t exist and unfairly damaging the reputation of respected professionals,” they said in a statement. “These men are innocent.”
The indictment is a stunning turn of events for Mr. Horowitz, a mainstay of New York City’s rare books and manuscripts market known for combining keen business sense with deep literary knowledge and showman flair. A visit to his Midtown office with a terrace overlooking the Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture garden may include a glimpse of an exquisite historical letter or breathtaking literary artifact — along with a note that the viewing was off-limits.
Mr. Horowitz obtained Mr. Henley’s notes sometime in 2005, according to a press release from Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan District Attorney. The manuscripts were originally stolen from Mr Henley in the late 1970s by a writer working on a book about the band, his office said.
The notes include handwritten lyrics from “Hotel California,” the title track from the band’s inescapable 1976 album.
Mr Henley became aware of the return of the notes when Mr Horowitz sold them to two other collectors, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski, who then attempted to further market them. According to the prosecutor’s office, Mr. Henley police reports and told the collectors that the notes had been stolen.
“Rather than going to any lengths to ensure they actually owned the rightful property, the defendants responded by campaigning for years to prevent Henley from getting the manuscripts back,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The men attempted to launder the notes through Sotheby’s auction houses and spent five years trying to hide where the documents came from, the prosecutor’s office said. Mr. Horowitz would later use the death of a second Eagles frontman, Glenn Frey, in 2016 as a possible cover, suggesting he was Mr. Horowitz’s first source for the papers, according to the press release.
Mr Frey “is sadly dead, and if he identified him as the source, this would disappear once and for all,” Mr Horowitz said in a fabricated statement of provenance after the notes were seized by investigators at a Sotheby’s warehouse, the district. the law firm said.
Mr. Horowitz was charged with conspiracy, attempted criminal possession of stolen property and obstructing prosecution. Mr Inciardi and Mr Kosinski were both charged with possession of stolen property and conspiracy.
Alex Traub and Jennifer Schussler reporting contributed.
