The Paul McCartney's iconic Höfner electric bass guitar was stolen from him in 1972 but after fans intervened and set up The Lost Bass Project to track it down, it has now been returned to Paul.
A message on Paul's website said: "Following the launch of last year's Lost Bass project, Paul's 1961 Höfner 500/1 bass guitar, which was stolen in 1972, has been returned. The guitar has been authenticated by Höfner and Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved".
The Lost Bass project members include former Höfner GmbH marketing manager Nick Wass, former BBC journalist Scott Jones and television producer Naomi Jones and the group shared the happy news on their own website.
They wrote: "Missing for 51 years, we are thrilled to tell you that Paul McCartney's first Hofner bass has been found and reunited with Paul. We are extremely proud that we played a major part in finding the Lost Bass. It has been a dream since 2018 that it could be done. Despite many telling us that it was lost forever or destroyed, we persisted until it was back where it belonged. We want to thank everyone who helped with the search, all those who sent us leads and ideas and many who just wanted to lend their support to us. Thank you all so very much. Very much indeed! We did it!".
And he added: "This is the news you have all been waiting so patiently for. Finally, after so much searching and investigation, we have Paul's Lost Bass back with him. Can you imagine how excited Paul was when he heard the news! The bass is complete and still with its original case. It will need some repairs to make it playable again, but a team of professionals can easily carry these out. The search began in 2018 but received no really useful leads for some time. It was only when Scott and Naomi Jones joined the search in May 2023 that things really started to move forward".