Totenberg’s stolen Stradivarius returned

According to the violist’s daughter, Nina Totenberg, a California woman got the violin appraised in New York after inheriting it from her ex-husband.

The expert immediately recognised the instrument, Totenberg said.

“The appraiser looks at her and says, ‘Well, I have some good news and some bad news,’” Ms. Totenberg was reported by The New York Times as saying.

“‘The good news is that this is a real Stradivarius. And the bad news is it was stolen, 35, 36 years ago from Roman Totenberg, and I have to report it right away.’ And within two hours, two agents from the FBI art theft team were there.”

Roman Totenberg was born in Warsaw in 1911, and enjoyed a distinguished career as a violinist and a scholar, working with greats such as Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Leopold Stokowski and Arthur Rubinstein.

In 2000, Totenberg was awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

He died in 2012 at the age of 101.

The Stradivarius violin was made in 1734, and is known as the Ames Stradivarius, once belonging to George Ames who performed with it in the late 19th century. It was stolen in 1980 from Totenberg’s office at the Longy School of Music of Bard College where he worked during that period. At the time of the theft it was valued at USD 250,000.

Luthier Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) is widely considered to be one of the best violin makers in history, with examples fetching millions of dollars at auction. (rg)