It’s been more than three decades, but a rare violin, stolen more than three decades ago, will soon be in the hands of its owner’s family.
The 281-year-old Stradivarius violin was stolen in 1980 from Polish-American violinist and teacher Roman Totenberg, according to an article in The Washington Post.
His daughters, Nina Totenberg, a legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio; Amy Totenberg, a federal judge in Atlanta ; and Jill Totenberg, CEO of the Totenberg Group, a marketing, public relations and communications firm based in New York, will receive the treasured violin Thursday at the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York City.
Roman Totenberg died in 2012 at age 101.
The violin, made in 1734, disappeared after a performance by Totenberg in 1980 in Cambridge, Mass., according to the Washington Post. Nina Totenberg, reportedly, declined to speculate on its value, although a Stradivarius violin sold for more than $15 million in 2011.
“The agent said to me, that’s his one regret, that they didn’t get it back in time for him to see it and play it again,” Nina Totenberg told the Post. “He was practicing two weeks before he died in 2012. But you know, I like to think that somewhere, somehow, he and my mother know about this. And who knows, maybe they made this happen.”
About the Author
