£20,000 Charity Guitar

20,000 Charity Guitar Signed By JIMMY PAGE, BRIAN MAY, ERIC CLAPTON "Vanishes"

The following report is courtesy of Andy Dolan from Dailymail.co.uk:

Rock legends happily signed the guitar Dave Allen carried with him on a fundraising crusade. Rather than risk losing it in the post, the music promoter or a member of his staff would personally ferry the Fender Stratocaster around the country. But just weeks before the instrument - boasting the signatures of ERIC CLAPTON, BRIAN MAY, JIMMY PAGE and BILL WYMAN, among others - was due to fetch around £20,000 at auction for a children's charity, it has vanished.

Unable to find anyone to carry it home from a signing by Mark Knopfler of DIRE STRAITS, Mr Allen entrusted it to couriers Parcelforce for the first time - and they promptly lost it.

Yesterday Mr Allen said he was "gutted" at the news as he contemplated starting the year-long project again from scratch.

The guitar disappeared last month while in the care of Parcelforce en route from Knopfler's London office to Mr Allen's home in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

The firm has spent four weeks scanning closed-circuit TV footage of its premises and searching depots in a futile bid to track down the missing instrument, which also featured the signatures of GARY MOORE, Pete Townshend of THE WHO and Hollywood actor and blues musician Steven Seagal. Parcelforce has now offered Mr Allen, of Mad Hatters Concerts, £15,000 as a gesture of goodwill.

Read more here.

(Thanks Brianmay.com)