Gene Autry’s lost guitar nearly sold for 500 Swedish kronor. Instead, a prospective buyer stopped the sale, setting off an investigation that connected a Swedish family’s inheritance to one of America’s best-known singing cowboys.

The instrument is a Martin OM-45 that belonged to Autry in the early 1930s. A hidden serial number established that connection. How it reached Sweden, and who has the right to keep it, are harder questions.

Swedish newspaper Göteborgs-Posten traces the discovery in its four-part investigation, “Strings of Fortune.”

The Buyer Who Stopped the Sale

A woman identified as Sandra inherited the guitar after her father, musician Owe Jakobsson, died in 2021. She listed it on Facebook Marketplace without knowing its history.

Erik Hjertberg came to inspect it and recognized that she might have something valuable. Rather than buy it at the asking price, he urged her to remove the listing and investigate.

Guitar expert Leif Lundbäck identified the instrument as a rare OM-45. But its condition complicated the search: the visible serial number had been sanded away, and black paint obscured Autry’s name on the fretboard.

How Gene Autry’s Lost Guitar Was Identified

Photographs offered an early clue. Former Martin museum director Dick Boak compared the instrument with an old image of Autry holding an OM-45 and found matching wood grain.

The stronger evidence arrived during restoration. In spring 2026, instrument maker Andras Novak separated the neck from the body and uncovered another serial number: 43709.

Historian Greig Hutton found that number in Martin’s surviving correspondence. A February 1932 letter identified Autry’s OM-45 by the same digits.

The records also described work on the instrument, including Autry’s request to have his name inlaid on the fretboard. The guitar had an identity again.

It should not be confused with Autry’s better-known Martin D-45. The Autry Museum dates that instrument to around 1933, after the OM-45 disappeared.

One Guitar, Two Claims

Identification has not settled ownership.

According to Göteborgs-Posten, Autry’s 1932 tax return records the theft of a Martin guitar and a Buick on Oct. 15. It does not specify the guitar’s model or serial number, though the purchase date supports the connection.

Autry’s widow, Jackie, wants the instrument returned for display at the Autry Museum of the American West. Her representatives offered $20,000 during earlier negotiations. Sandra declined.

Sandra argues that her family could have acquired it in good faith. She also hopes musicians might play the restored guitar as a tribute to her father.

A property-law expert consulted by the newspaper explained that any ownership decision could depend on evidence of theft, subsequent purchases and the timing of recovery demands.

The route to Sweden remains incomplete. Reporters explored whether Sandra’s grandfather bought the instrument at a local auction, but surviving evidence could not establish that transaction. Auction records had been destroyed by a water leak.

The serial number answered whose guitar it was. It has not answered whose guitar it is now.