Liberace’s Rhinestone Piano Ownership Weighed Again at 1st. Cir.

The First Circuit revisited a six-year debate over who owns a rhinestone-studded piano previously used by the now-deceased entertainer Liberace.

At the heart of the oral argument on Wednesday were questions around a bankruptcy filing by piano manufacturer Baldwin Piano & Organ Co., which owned the instrument, originally covered in an estimated 10,000 rhinestones. But the soul of the case is whether a jury correctly concluded who owns the instrument.

The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit previously ruled that bailment and contract claims brought by Gibson Foundation Inc.—a Massachusetts-based charitable arm of Gibson Brands Inc.—against piano ...