Roman Totenberg's violin, the Ames Stradivarius, 35 years after it was stolen from his office at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. A woman who'd inherited it from her late ex-husband took it to be appraised, and the appraiser recognized the instrument immediately.
The man from whom she'd inherited it was also Totenberg's suspect as the thief, but in 1980, the authorities, even with a tip from a third party, didn't feel there was enough evidence for a search warrant.
Totenberg, a famed violinist and teacher, died in 2012 at age 101, teaching almost until his last breath.
Read all about it in Michael Cooper's story in the NY Times. (And for the authorities' next trick, could they find the Davidoff Strad, stolen from Erika Morini's apartment when she was dying?)(The violin, not the cello currently played by Yo-Yo Ma.)
Nina Totenberg, NPR voice and Roman's daughter, did a very touching piece this morning on her father, the theft, and the recovery:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.npr.org/2015/08/06/427718240/a-rarity-reclaimed-stolen-stradivarius-recovered-after-35-years
It was one of those "driveway moments," when you are so affected by a story you arrive at your destination but keep the car radio going until the story is finished.
K.
Thanks - I do need to listen to that!
ReplyDeleteMaking a clickable link (DO NOT KNOW why Blogger does not do this automatically): Nina Totenberg's story on the recovery of her father's violin, the Ames Stradivarius.