Courtney Love now says Cobain's ashes never stolen

The weird tale of Kurt Cobain and his "stolen ashes" gets weirder stll.

A representative for Courtney Love has countered an Australian performance artist's claims that she is in possession of the remainder of Kurt Cobain's ashes, saying that the remains of the former Nirvana frontman were never actually taken.

The strange part - well, it's all strange -- is that this past June, Love went public with the news that her late husband's ashes were stolen from her Los Angeles home. Love was apparently storing them in a pink bear-shaped handbag in her closet, which she claimed a friend had swiped.

"I can't believe anyone would take Kurt's ashes from me," Love said at the time. "They were all I had left of my husband. Now it feels like I have lost him all over again."

However, the theft was never confirmed. Most of Cobain's ashes had previously been scattered at a New York Buddhist temple and in Washington's Wishkah River.

Now it gets really freaky

Things got really nutty this past Wednesday when artist Australian Natascha Stellmach said that she had somehow come into possession of the ashes ("That's confidential and kind of magic") and planned to smoke them at an exhibit at Berlin's Galerie Wagner + Partner, as part of an art piece entitled I Just Wanted You To Love Me.

Alan Nierob, speaking on behalf of Love, now says the remains "were never taken."

All of which begs the musical question: What are Love and Stellmach really smoking?