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Glenn Horowitz, age 66, and Craig Inciardi, age 58, both of New York City, were indicted Tuesday, July 12, on conspiracy and stolen property charges in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.
A 59-year-old New Jersey man, Edward Kosinski, was also charged.
The charges stem from an alleged plot to sell around 100 pages of handwritten lyrics and notes for the Eagles’ “Hotel California” album, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Valued at over $1 million, the papers included lyrics to the songs “Hotel California,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” and “New Kid in Town.”
Prosecutors said the papers were originally stolen in the late 1970s by an author who was hired to write a biography of the band.
The biographer eventually sold the papers in 2005 to Horowitz, a rare books dealer, who later sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, prosecutors said.
When Don Henley, the Eagles’ founding member and vocalist, discovered that the men were trying to sell the papers, he reportedly informed them that they were stolen, filed police reports, and demanded their return.
“The defendants responded by engaging in a years-long campaign to prevent Henley from recovering the manuscripts,” Bragg said.
Prosecutors said the men fabricated stories about the documents’ origins and their right to possess them in an effort to sell them through Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction houses.
They also tried coercing Henley into buying his stolen property back, prosecutors said.
In December 2016, the District Attorney’s Office executed a series of search warrants and retrieved the manuscripts from Sotheby’s and from Kosinski’s New Jersey home.
But Horowitz didn’t give up.
After Eagles founding member Glenn Frey died in 2016, prosecutors said Horowitz tried exploiting his death to prevent prosecution by claiming that he got the manuscripts from Frey.
“(Frey) alas, is dead and identifying him as the source would make this go away once and for all,” Horowitz reportedly wrote in an email exchange, according to prosecutors.
All three men were charged with one count of fourth-degree conspiracy, while Inciardi and Kosinski were additionally charged with first-degree criminal possession of stolen property.
Horrowitz was also charged with first-degree attempted criminal possession of stolen property, along with two counts of second-degree hindering prosecution.
“New York is a world-class hub for art and culture, and those who deal cultural artifacts must scrupulously follow the law,” said District Attorney Bragg. “There is no room for those who would seek to ignore the basic expectations of fair dealing and undermine the public’s confidence and trust in our cultural trade for their own ends.
“These defendants attempted to keep and sell these unique and valuable manuscripts, despite knowing they had no right to do so. They made up stories about the origin of the documents and their right to possess them so they could turn a profit.”
The men appeared in court Tuesday, July 12, where all three pleaded not guilty.
Their lawyers issued a joint statement calling the charges “unwarranted” and vowed to fight them “vigorously.”
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