Caroline Donado
Co-editor in chief
Courtney Love is a controversial figure in the view of many Nirvana fans; there are numerous conspiracy theories that accuse her of the murder of her husband, Kurt Cobain. Now, she is being sued for being part of a plan to kill her daughter’s ex-husband in order to gain possession of the acoustic guitar Kurt played in his famous MTV Unplugged performance.
After their daughter Frances Bean Cobain divorced from Isaiah Silva, it was settled that Silva would keep the 1959 Martin D-18E guitar, which he claimed was a gift he received from Kurt Cobain as a wedding present to welcome him into the family. Silva, however, stated that Frances and Courtney wished to get the guitar back and sent three men to his house to forcibly take it from him. The three he names are Sam Lufti, Courtney’s manager; Ross Butler, an actor and Yan Yukhtman, a chauffeur.
Love has said to TMZ that "It's not [Silva's] to take,” and that the guitar is a “treasured heirloom of the family.” The guitar also happens to be worth millions of dollars.
Silva claims that the men illegally entered his house in the middle of the night, claiming they were the police. They proceeded to threaten and assault him to learn the location of the guitar. Afterwards, they attempted to force Silva into the back of a car; however, one of Silva’s bandmates called the police before he could be kidnapped.
Court records state: “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.” The three supposedly hacked into Silva’s iMessage to "[make] it appear Silva was despondent and on a mental precipice contemplating suicide." Lufti has also frequently harassed and threatened Silva, his family and friends, driving Silva to file a temporary restraining order against him in 2016. The suit states that Lufti told Silva that Love and Courtney agreed to compensate him with $120,000 if he could get Silva to sign an agreement to surrender the guitar, which may be his primary motive for pursuing Silva so aggressively. When the police arrived on the scene, Silva claims that the men forced him into agreeing with their story that they were playing a prank on him. Various emails and texts show that Lufti threatened Silva: “This agreement is your one and only choice, consider it your lifeline.” The matters have yet to play out in court, but a source close to Love and Cobain says, “Frances and the family are prepared to fight with a fury of unprecedented legal force and they will prevail.” As of now, Silva still remains in possession of the guitar.
