USA-NEW YORK/VIOLIN-STRADIVARIUS U.S. authorities return rare Stradivarius violin stolen in 1980

Record ID: 144694

  • Title: USA-NEW YORK/VIOLIN-STRADIVARIUS U.S. authorities return rare Stradivarius violin stolen in 1980
  • Date: 6th August 2015
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 6, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF JUDGE AMY TOTENBERG, NINA TOTENBERG AND JILL TOTENBERG, DAUGHTERS OF MUSICIAN ROMAN TOTENBERG, STANDING BEHIND THE AMES STRADIVARIUS AND HUGGING AMES STRADIVARIUS
  • Embargoed: 21st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAE0LG2UG421YZL0754QXO48F90
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: U.S. authorities formally returned a stolen Stradivarius violin on Thursday (August 6) to the family of its rightful owner, the famed Polish violinist Roman Totenberg, who died in 2012 at the age of 101.
    The violin, known as the Ames Stradivarius, was made by renowned Italian violin maker Antonio Stradivari in 1734.
    At a press conference, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, explained that "In 1980, after a concert in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Ames Stradivarius that had been Totenberg's music partner for decades was stolen. Sadly, Roman Totenberg never got to see or play his beloved Stradivarius again before he passed away in 2012."
    Bharara went to say that on a late June afternoon in a Manhattan hotel, a woman handed one of the world's rarest musical instruments to Phillip Injeian, a violin maker and appraiser.
    The woman was simply hoping to learn more about the violin, which she had received years before as a gift from her late former husband, Philip Johnson. But Injeian immediately recognized it for what it was: the valuable Stradivarius violin that had been stolen 35 years earlier.
    "It was a 'Eureka' moment," Injeian said about the moment he saw the violin.
    Approximately 550 Stradivarius instruments, including violins, violas and cellos, remain in existence. One violin sold for a record $15.9 million at auction in 2011.
    The recovery of the Ames violin was first reported earlier on Thursday on National Public Radio by Nina Totenberg, its legal affairs correspondent and one of Roman Totenberg's three daughters.
    Totenberg explained that her father had long suspected the violin was taken by Johnson, another violinist.
    "He'd been seen loitering around the place it was taken and later his ex-girlfriend would tell my father that she was quite sure that he had taken it. That however, was not enough for a search warrant. And my mother was so frustrated that she famously would ask her friends if they knew anyone in the mob who would break into Johnson's apartment and do a search for the violin," she said.
    Johnson was never charged and died in 2011.
    When Johnson's former wife showed Injeian the violin, he immediately called authorities. The woman voluntarily agreed to return it to the Totenberg family once she learned it was stolen, according to Bharara.
    Asked whether Johnson had stolen the violin, Bharara declined to comment, saying that the facts were evident. He added that no criminal case is expected against the woman.
    Nina Totenberg said the family plans to sell the violin to a performer.
    "Stradivarius owners are really just guardians of these great instruments," she said. "They are meant to be played."
    A handful of stolen Stradivarius instruments remains missing, including a 1727 violin taken from the New York City apartment of violinist Erica Morini in 1995.
    Last year, the concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra was attacked with a stun gun after a performance and robbed of his Stradivarius violin. Two men were convicted and sentenced to prison for the crime, and the violin was recovered.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register