There’s no positive vibration between a musician who played with Bob Marley and a band promoter who is accused of stealing the late reggae legend’s prized guitar.
Aston “Family Man” Barrett, bassist and founding member of Bob Marley and the Wailers, is wailing to a New York judge over Angus Reid’s alleged attempt to auction the instrument – worth an estimated $50,000 – through Christie’s last month.
According to a lawsuit against Reid and the auction house, the late reggae star gave Barrett the guitar as a gift in 1979, and Barrett, in turn lent, it to the promoter for display at his Norfolk, Va., concert venue in 2000.
When Barrett tried to retrieve the instrument seven years later, Reid refused to give it back, according to court papers.
Come October, Barrett was shocked to learn Reid had planned to sell the guitar at a Christie’s auction on Nov. 24.
Barrett contacted Christie’s with his complaint and told an attorney there that “the guitar was a priceless memoir of [his] years of friendship with Bob Marley and that the guitar belonged to [him].”
The guitar was withdrawn from the auction.
A Christie’s spokeswoman said the auction house was “storing the guitar pending the resolution of the matter by the courts.” A call to Reid was not returned.