Guitar at center of division of marital assets

There are certain pieces of music memorabilia that are incredibly valuable. The guitar played by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain during the band’s appearance on MTV Unplugged certainly falls into that category. The acoustic guitar was one of the last instruments that Cobain played prior to his suicide just months later, and was handed down to his widow and daughter. That instrument is now at the center of a debate on the division of marital assets, which is a story that many Colorado residents are following.

Frances Bean Cobain is the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. She is now 23 years of age and is married to the lead singer of the band The Eeries, Isaiah Silva. The couple married after five years of dating, but Cobain filed for divorce just 21 months later, listing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the filing.

Cobain has a prenuptial agreement in place to protect her inheritance from her father’s estate, which is valued at an estimated $450 million. However, Silva claims that Cobain gave him her father’s guitar as a gift, and that the instrument is not covered under the umbrella of the prenup. Cobain argues that she never gave the guitar to Silva, and Courtney Love has stated that the guitar is a family heirloom and not something that Silva has any right to claim as his own.

It appears that the matter will go before a court and that a judge will determine which party has the right to keep the guitar. Making that determination could rest on the level of evidence that the parties are able to provide about whether the guitar was a gift, or if it should be considered part of the Cobain estate. Many in Colorado feel that the instrument is a piece of alternative rock history and, as such, should remain with the Cobain family and not become part of the division of marital assets.

Source: musictimes.com, “Frances Bean’s Ex Husband The Eeries Isaiah Silva Keeping Kurt Cobain’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ Guitar“, Caliey Lindberg, July 7, 2016