The violins of Antonio Stradivari, like good wine, only get better over the years. The cost of the famous instrument at auctions ranges from $ 5 to $ 20 million, but they are rarely sold, because there are only about 550 of them in the world, and almost all of them. Periodically, the wooden masterpieces of the Italian from Cremona become heroes of detective chronicles: robbers kidnap them for sale on the black market, and fanatical musicians for their own pleasure.
P OCHTI Mozart and Salieri
Recently, in August 2015, one of the stolen violins by Antonio Stradivari returned to the owners - Nina, Jill and Amy Totenberg, daughters of the outstanding violinist Roman Totenberg. The tool has been missing for 35 years! The musician himself did not live to see this happy day, although he lived a lot - 101 years. He died in 2012, and became the owner of the violin back in 1943. It took him only twenty years to find the settings and achieve the perfect sound of the instrument! In the early 1980s, the master was at the peak of his career. The music world appreciated him for his virtuoso violin playing and outstanding teaching abilities. The former Polish emigrant gave concerts and taught a lot. Totenberg headed the department of stringed instruments at the Academy of Music of the West in Santa Barbara, headed the department of stringed instruments at Boston University,taught at the Peabody Conservatory, Mannes College and Aspen School of Music. Since 1978, he has been rector of the Longey School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the last institution, the theft of the century happened.
One day in May, After the concert, Totenberg left the violin in his office, and he himself went away to communicate with the public. After that, the tool disappeared. The musician reported missing to the police. He himself suspected the theft of violinist Philip Johnson, who was wiping around his office on that ill-fated day, but the prosecutor's office refused to issue a search warrant for Johnson's apartment for lack of evidence. And now, after so many years, it turned out that the master's instinct did not disappoint! The violin was found in Johnson's house. He himself did not live to shame - he died at the age of 58 from cancer. After the theft, Johnson moved to California, where he thought his talent would be appreciated, which he could not say about Massachusetts. But in the new place, the career did not develop either, and even the Stradivarius violin, which he carefully concealed, did not help. Johnson tried to sell the instrumentbut in vain. After his death, his widow Thanh Chan opened the cabinet, closed with a combination lock, and discovered a violin with a label with the name of Stradivari glued inside. Thanh Chan called Philip Injeyan, a great violin connoisseur and owner of a musical instrument shop in Boston. She wanted to sell the find, but she needed to get the opinion of a specialist. Philip Indzheyan at first took her words with a fair amount of skepticism, he knew very well that for every genuine Stradivarius violin there are from one hundred to five hundred thousand fakes. However, when Injeyan arrived at a hotel in Manhattan, where he was invited by the widow, and took the instrument in hand, his doubts were dispelled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled.and found a violin with a label with the name of Stradivari glued inside. Thanh Chan called Philip Injeyan, a great violin connoisseur and owner of a musical instrument shop in Boston. She wanted to sell the find, but she needed to get the opinion of a specialist. Philip Indzheyan at first took her words with a fair amount of skepticism, he knew very well that for every genuine Stradivarius violin there are from one hundred to five hundred thousand fakes. However, when Injeyan arrived at a hotel in Manhattan, where he was invited by the widow, and took the instrument in hand, his doubts were dispelled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled.and found a violin with a label with the name of Stradivari glued inside. Thanh Chan called Philip Injeyan, a great violin connoisseur and owner of a musical instrument shop in Boston. She wanted to sell the find, but she needed to get the opinion of a specialist. Philip Indzheyan at first took her words with a fair amount of skepticism, he knew very well that for every genuine Stradivarius violin there are from one hundred to five hundred thousand fakes. However, when Injeyan arrived at a hotel in Manhattan, where he was invited by the widow, and took the instrument in hand, his doubts were dispelled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled. She wanted to sell the find, but she needed to get the opinion of a specialist. Philip Indzheyan at first took her words with a fair amount of skepticism, he knew very well that for every genuine Stradivarius violin there are from one hundred to five hundred thousand fakes. However, when Injeyan arrived at a hotel in Manhattan, where he was invited by the widow, and took the instrument in hand, his doubts were dispelled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled. She wanted to sell the find, but she needed to get the opinion of a specialist. Philip Indzheyan at first took her words with a fair amount of skepticism, he knew very well that for every genuine Stradivarius violin there are from one hundred to five hundred thousand fakes. However, when Injeyan arrived at a hotel in Manhattan, where he was invited by the widow, and took the instrument in hand, his doubts were dispelled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled. It was the original from 1734! Injeyan himself owns Stradivarius violins, he cannot be fooled.
The instrument was in poor condition, but the Totenberg family plans to sell it to a worthy musician after restoration.
TO YOURSELF
Promotional video:
The sale of a stolen Stradivarius violin is no less troublesome and complicated than its theft. Unfortunately, most robbers find out too late. In 1996, malefactors took out a Stradivari violin that belonged to the famous violinist David Oistrakh from the Moscow State Museum of Musical Instruments named after M. Glinka. It took two and a half years to find the violin, and was eventually found in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Sochi. Apparently, none of the collectors that the attackers contacted wanted to get involved with such an iconic stolen thing.
Another curious story is connected with this violin. During the life of David Oistrakh, his Moscow apartment was robbed, but the Stradivarius violin, donated to the master by the Belgian Queen Elizabeth after his victory at the competition in Brussels, was not touched. The robbers simply did not realize its real value. They took out of the house a large amount of money in different currencies, jewelry (including a gold cigarette case donated by the first President of Turkey Ataturk), orders, cameras, watches, and sound recording equipment. After Oistrakh's death, his family donated the priceless instrument to the music museum. Who would have thought that the violin would be stolen from the museum!
The same "incompetent" criminals stole a Stradivarius violin on January 27, 2014 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. True, the robbers were insolent. Right on the street, three malefactors struck the concertmaster of the local symphony orchestra, Frank Elmond, with an electric shock, snatched the case with the instrument from their hands and disappeared in a van. The rarity was dated 1715 and was called "Stradivarius Lipinsky Violin". It was owned by the Polish virtuoso violinist Karol Lipinski, and before him by the Italian violinist Giuseppe Tartini. The violin was donated to Frank Almond for perpetual use by a group of Wisconsin philanthropists. Experts were perplexed: it was impossible to sell the violins of the great Italian, except in a cheap store for several hundred dollars. And they can catchafter all, all violins are registered in a special electronic art catalog. Order the kidnapping can only be an abnormal person who dreams of possessing a priceless treasure and enjoying it alone. If so, the chances of finding rarity are minimized. Even experts from the FBI got involved in the investigation. The police came to grips with the sellers of stun guns, thanks to which they found the criminals. During searches in the houses of three suspects, a violin was found in a suitcase in the attic of one of them. The instrument was in good condition. Frank Elmond and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and along with the insurance company, were lucky: they found the loss after just ten days!then the chances of finding a rarity are minimized. Even experts from the FBI got involved in the investigation. The police came to grips with the sellers of stun guns, thanks to which they found the criminals. During searches in the houses of three suspects, a violin was found in a suitcase in the attic of one of them. The instrument was in good condition. Frank Elmond and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and along with the insurance company, were lucky: they found the loss after just ten days!then the chances of finding a rarity are minimized. Even experts from the FBI got involved in the investigation. The police came to grips with the sellers of stun guns, thanks to which they found the criminals. During searches in the houses of three suspects, a violin was found in a suitcase in the attic of one of them. The instrument was in good condition. Frank Elmond and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and along with the insurance company, were lucky: they found the loss after just ten days!found lost after only ten days!found lost after only ten days!
THE MOST EXPENSIVE SANDWICH IN THE WORLD
The theft of the Stradivarius violin from the famous Korean violinist Min Chin Kim also caused a stir. The girl planned to go from London to Manchester to visit family and friends. At Euston Square station, the violinist and her friend got off the subway to buy a couple of sandwiches and coffee at the station cafe. While they were paying for food, the black case with a unique violin and a pair of bows was stolen by unknown persons. When the girls noticed the loss, the criminals were gone. Most likely, they did not even suspect that they had stolen the instrument, which was unrealistic to sell: the violin made in 1696 had characteristic damage to the case, which were recorded by insurance agents. The bows were also of great value. One of them, created by the French master of the 19th century Dominique Peccate, was estimated at 97.5 thousand dollars,another - the work of his student Françoise Bazin - cost about 8 thousand dollars. The Korean woman received the violin for temporary use from its owner, whose name was kept secret. The criminals were caught quickly - they turned out to be three young people. They had no idea about the real value of the treasure, so they sold the case with all the contents for £ 100. They searched for sellers for a long time, but to no avail. At some point, the police trumpeted the victory: in Bulgaria, the gypsies found a violin, which at first was mistaken for the one that they had shaved in the diner. But it was a fake. The violin was discovered only in July 2013. British police found her with bows in a building in central London. The violin and bows were not damaged. The violin was returned, but not to the Korean woman, but to its rightful owner. He put the instrument up for auctionand the creation of Antonio Stradivari was acquired by the organizing company of music festivals.
Lyubov SHAROVA