At the ArtsBeat blog in Tuesday’s (7/30) New York Times, Dave Itzkoff reports, “Music lovers and insurance adjusters alike are surely breathing sighs of relief after the recovery of a valuable Stradivarius violin in Britain more than two years after it was stolen from a musician in London. BBC News reported that the violin, three centuries old and valued at £1.2 million (about $1.8 million), had been found after a 2010 incident in which it was stolen from the violinist Min-Jin Kym while she was at a sandwich shop in North London. Ms. Kym told the BBC that the violin ‘had been the instrument I had been playing on since I was a teenager’ and ‘a huge part of my identity for many years.’ Its loss, she said, ‘was devastating,’ but its recovery brought ‘an incredible feeling of elation.’ … The police told the BBC that the violin had been found in the Midlands, in central Britain, but would not offer further details because of a continuing investigation. Though the violin was recovered with some minor damage, two of its bows, one valued at £62,000 (about $95,000) and another at over £5,000 (about $7,650), had not been found.”
Posted July 31, 2013
