Lost and Found
I’m sure by now everyone has heard the story about GPS navigation being used to recover Hahn-Bin’s Giovanni Francesco Pressenda violin after he left it in a New York City cab. I’ve seen a few other stories about lost and recovered stringed instruments in the news lately and am curious about my fellow community members’ experience with this.
Violinist Heather Cowan thought she would never see Matilda, her 1898 Stradivari copy, again after it was stolen from the side of the stage at the Egg Theatre in Salisbury, England. Luckily, a staff member at a second hand shop realized they had the instrument and returned it– and the thief was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison.
A 65-year-old man found a 1792 Antonio Gragnani violin, worth around €100,000, on a subway train in Vienna. He held onto it for three days before handing it over to the police, who returned it to its rightful owner, an 18-year-old tourist from Japan.
Michelle Archer’s violin, which she calls Max, was stolen out of her Chicago apartment when she was 20. She had owned the violin, made by Adolph Adler in 1923, for 14 years before it was taken. 30 years later, long after the police had destroyed the original theft report, Archer, who now lives in Florida, found the violin on eBay and was reunited with Max.
Does anyone else have a story about recovering an instrument you thought you might never see again? Ideas about how to keep your beloved instrument safe from harm? And who else has given their instrument a name?
Violinist Heather Cowan thought she would never see Matilda, her 1898 Stradivari copy, again after it was stolen from the side of the stage at the Egg Theatre in Salisbury, England. Luckily, a staff member at a second hand shop realized they had the instrument and returned it– and the thief was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison.
A 65-year-old man found a 1792 Antonio Gragnani violin, worth around €100,000, on a subway train in Vienna. He held onto it for three days before handing it over to the police, who returned it to its rightful owner, an 18-year-old tourist from Japan.
Michelle Archer’s violin, which she calls Max, was stolen out of her Chicago apartment when she was 20. She had owned the violin, made by Adolph Adler in 1923, for 14 years before it was taken. 30 years later, long after the police had destroyed the original theft report, Archer, who now lives in Florida, found the violin on eBay and was reunited with Max.
Does anyone else have a story about recovering an instrument you thought you might never see again? Ideas about how to keep your beloved instrument safe from harm? And who else has given their instrument a name?
Comment
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Comment by Karis on October 15, 2009 at 4:49am - See my story below!
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Comment by Monica Hesse on October 8, 2009 at 8:45pm - Wow! But what about if you are traveling abroad out of the country - are there any lost and founds on those frightening scenarios??
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Comment by peggy teel on September 25, 2009 at 5:36am - I was on my way to the lake, but stopped for lunch with my husband and son. I had my new (1920) violin with me, so I took it into the restaurant with me. When I left the restaurant, I took the violin, my drink, my purse, and my car keys. Since my hands were full when I got to the car, I set the violin down on the pavement, unlocked the car, and sat down in the car to place my drink in the cup holder and my purse on the floor. Then I shut the car door and drove off! I got a couple of miles away from the busy parking lot before I realized I didn't have my violin with me. I had a moment of panic when I thought I had placed it in the trunk of my car where it could rattle around and possibly get damaged. Then I really panicked when I realized I had left it in the parking lot. I made a quick u-turn and raced back to the parking lot, pictures of an empty lot or a smashed violin taunting me to drive faster. Of course, I got behind every slow vehicle in Alabama on the way back. I arrived at the parking lot just in time to see a man walking up to the case with a quizzical look on his face. I jumped out of my car and ran, shouting "That's mine! That's mine!" Alarmed, he backed off from the instrument with his hands in the air. This story is not very exciting for anyone except me, and possibly the man in the parking lot who, I'm pretty sure thought he had discovered a bomb. But please let it be a reminder to everyone to be very careful. If you have to set something down, don't let it be your violin!
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Comment by Karis on September 25, 2009 at 4:49am
- I'm an American and have lived in Kenya for the past three years. There are lots of carjackings and robberies that happen where I live. I've been carjacked and held at gunpoint before! Last December my violin was stolen from my car. A friend and I managed to track down the thugs (jambazi) that stole the instrument. After long negotiations, several rabbits trails and three weeks, I got my violin back on the 1st of January! I could not believe I got it back as these guys didn't even know what they had stolen. They thought they had taken a laptop and were trying to sell it on the street for $10, saying it was a tiny guitar with some "sticks" inside. The violin was fine and none of the accessories inside the case were stolen. All my music was gone, however, so I had over a hundred dollars of music to replace. I'm sure that probably went in the garbage bin since they couldn't sell it! I'm still wary traveling around Kenya with my violin but it also now has an amazing story to go with it!
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Comment by Cate Thompson on September 24, 2009 at 6:14pm
- My cello is named Gao Xing which I am told means happiness? Any Chinese readers care to confirm this?
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Comment by Katie Shields on September 24, 2009 at 5:07pm - My Carl Becker viola was stolen from a friend's house in Orlando, FL. The string community in town knew of the theft- and 2 months later the local string repair shop recovered the viola. A local resident bought found it at a yard sale. Realizing it was worth much more than the $40 being asked, he bought it and then called the repair shop to have his "Carl Becker violin" appraised. Another viola, made by Henri Vallon, has not yet been recovered.
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