Courtney Love's being sued by her daughter Frances Bean Cobain's ex-husband for alleged kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder over ownership of her late husband Kurt Cobain's 1959 Martin D-18E guitar that was used during Nirvana's iconic MTV Unplugged in New York performance in 1993, Billboard reports.
Britney Spears' ex-manager Sam Lutfi, who worked with the pop star during her infamous 2007 meltdown, is named in the suit and accused of supplying illicit drugs to Love's daughter, as well as kidnapping, attempted murder, false imprisonment, extortion and more. Riverdale star Ross Butler is also accused of playing a role in the crime.
The guitar has been a point of contention since Cobain filed for divorce from the plaintiff, Isaiah Silva, in 2016. In the lawsuit, Silva claims the guitar was gifted to him by Cobain in 2014, six months before their wedding, as a dating anniversary present. During the settlement process, Cobain relinquished the instrument to get out of paying Silva spousal support.
However, Love wasn't ready to let the rare guitar that's one of 300 made and supposedly worth millions of dollars go that easily. She's been outspoken about it declaring it's a "treasured heirloom of the family" and "It's not [Silva's] to take."
According to Silva, Cobain developed a drug habit during their relationship, which was supplied by Lutfi. The lawsuit states that while Silva and Cobain amicably began the settlement process, Love and Lutfi "became obsessed with finding a way to retrieve the guitar from Silva" and teamed up with Butler and a chauffeur named Yan Yukhtman to allegedly hack into Silva's iMessage account and send out messages "making it appear Silva was despondent and on a mental precipice contemplating suicide."
This was allegedly part of a plan to commit a home invasion, kidnap Silva, murder him, make it appear to be a suicide and recover the guitar, among other things.
The threats turned physical on June 3, 2016 when Lutfi, Butler and Yukhtman broke into Silva's house and claimed they were the police before yelling at Silva's friend. Lutfi threatened the plaintiff to calm down, "grabbing Silva's genitals through his pants, and whispered to Silva, 'Listen f----t, calm the f--- down or we'll drag you upstairs and take turns f---ing you.'"
They then forced him out of his home unwillingly and into a vehicle. His friend called 9-1-1 and when police arrived Silva claims Lutfi "hurriedly concocted a false story intended to prevent LAPD from arresting them" and threatened the lives of Silva's family—including his 7-year-old daughter Arlo—if he didn't go along with it. "In shock and fearing for his life and the lives of his family and daughter," Silva agreed to go along with Lutfi's story that they were old college friends and the kidnapping had been a prank.
Were it not for the intervention, the suit claims "it is believed, based upon facts and evidence, that Silva would have been taken to a secondary crime scene and murdered on June 3, 2016."
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