A centuries-old Stradivarius that was stolen from the renowned violinist Roman Totenberg in 1980 was recovered after an appraiser recognized the instrument at the Ace Hotel in June — and when the $5 million instrument was returned to Totenberg’s daughters Thursday they called out the dead man who their father always suspected was the thief.
An eagle-eyed appraiser helped recover a Stradivarius violin that was stolen 35 years ago — when the alleged thief’s widow brought the $5 million instrument to New York so he could tell her what it’s worth.
The instrument was taken in 1980 from the late virtuoso Roman Totenberg — the father of NPR journalist Nina Totenberg — and did not surface until this June 26, when the woman brought the instrument to appraiser Phillip Injeian at the Ace Hotel on West 29th Street.
“It’s a national treasure. It’s like uncovering a lost Declaration of Independence,” said Injeian, who hoisted the violin at the press conference Thursday to show off how the wood’s grain “is like a fingerprint” and how the Stradivari mark is visible through the instrument’s f-holes.
The seven-figure fiddle was shown to Injeian by a woman named Thanh Tran, who is the widow of a rival violinist named Philip Johnson, who Totenberg’s family long suspected of being the thief.
They believe Johnson swiped the Stradivarius from a dressing room after a 1980 concert by Totenberg in Boston.
“He’d been seen loitering around the place where it was taken,” said Nina Totenberg, speaking at the ceremony in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office where the violin was returned to her and her two younger sisters.
“That, however, was not enough for a search warrant, and my mother was so frustrated that she famously would ask her friends if anyone knew someone in the mob who would break into Johnson’s apartment and do a search for the violin.”
After stealing the violin, Johnson moved to California, had a lackluster musical career and died of cancer at age 58 in 2011, a year before Totenberg died at the age of 101, according to NPR.
Tran sent Injeian photos of the violin, and he grew suspicious so he called his older brother, a retired FBI agent, and later spoke with NYPD Detective Michael Gildea, sources said.
Once Injeian saw it in person and confirmed it was the genuine article, Gildea spoke with Tran over the phone and said she would have to immediately relinquish it.
Tran has not been charged, as she had no idea the instrument was stolen, according to court papers.
The violin is known as the Ames Stradivarius because violinist George Ames performed with it in the late 1800s. It was made in Italy in 1734 by Antonio Stradivari and is one of several hundred known to exist.
Strads can fetch millions of dollars at auction, including a record $15.9 million in 2011.
