Valuable Stradivarius found after 35 years – El Universal (Venezuela)

  THE UNIVERSAL
 

Thursday August 6, 2015 4:36 PM

NEW YORK A Stradivarius eighteenth century who disappeared in May 1980 was found in a hotel and restored Thursday in New York to the daughters of the owner, who was a violinist and professor of American music.

The violin “Ames”, estimated at $ 5 million –according Manhattan– prosecutors belonged to the violinist Roman Totenberg Japanese origin, who died in 2012. It was manufactured in 1734 by the famous Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari.

The violin was stolen in May 1980 along with two ancient arches belonging to Totenberg, after a concert in the school of Longy Music in Cambridge, near Boston (Northeast US).

On June 26 last, the precious violin reappeared in a hotel in Manhattan where the ex-wife of a musician, who also died, met with an expert to request an estimate of your value.

The expert acknowledged violin and immediately alerted the police.

The then owner said he did not know that the violin was stolen and agreed to return it to the three daughters of Roman Totenberg, Polish prodigy who made his debut at age 11 with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and emigrated to America in 1938. He died in 2012 at age 101.

The “Ames” is named for George Ames, who owned the instrument in the late nineteenth century.

Of the nearly 1,000 violins Stradivari produced about 500 still exist in the world. Famous for its quality, sometimes sold for several million dollars.