News Archive

May-12-2008
Violin swindler masterfully played his victims
Joseph Hokai Tang appeared every bit the young dealer in fine violins and similar instruments. He was tall, well spoken and an accomplished musician who talked knowingly about Ouchard bows and H.C. Silvestre violins.
May-11-2008
Time to Tie a String Around That Strad
They talk about these bundles of wood and string as if they’re an extra limb, a repository of their DNA, a conduit to the very depths of their soul. Skip to next paragraph Emily Flake Multimedia Audio Slide Show Concert for a Found Violin Related Cabdriver Thanked for Returning a Stradivarius (May 7, 2008) Lost and Found in New York Taxicabs (May 7, 2008) So why do musicians keep getting separated from their precious, often priceless instruments? The answer could be simply that they are mere mortals. But if that is the case, why does it not happen even more often, given that musicians travel constantly and haul everything along except the Steinway grand? Maybe the answer there lies in the extraordinary, even paranoid behavior that musicians display toward the tools of their trade.
May-07-2008
Concerto in the Key of G, for Grateful
NEWARK — The violinist stood on a makeshift stage between two lampposts crowned with a patina of bird droppings, under a weathered vinyl canopy hastily erected outside Newark Liberty International Airport in the taxicab holding area. The audience watched him in awe, about 50 drivers in three rows, their yellow cabs a few feet behind, some lined up neatly, others askew.
Apr-23-2008
Newark cabbie's find is music to violinist's ears
It took 18 months for Philippe Quint to persuade a wealthy philanthropist to lend him a 1723 Antonio Stradivari "Ex-Keisewetter" violin valued at upward of $4 million. Early Monday, it took less than a minute for the valuable instrument to disappear after Quint left it in a Newark cab.
Apr-14-2008
Man leaves £180k violin on train
A £10,000 reward is being offered for the return of a valuable 17th Century violin which was left on a train. Robert Napier, from Wiltshire, had just had the 1698 Venice-made Goffriller valued by a London dealer at £180,000. He got off a Paddington to Taunton train at Bedwyn on 29 January with the family heirloom still on board.
Mar-26-2008
Can't make money from property or shares? Try violins
Throughout the 1920s stock market crash, the Second World War and the oil crises of the 1970s, there was one stock which remained steady – fine violins. As global financial uncertainty strikes again, investors shy of the FTSE and put off by property may wish to consider putting their money into a Stradivarius instead.
Mar-14-2008
Allianz: Outsmarting musical instrument thieves
The FINANCIAL -- Allianz Musical Insurance in the UK offers its customers a new service: with SmartWater, each instrument receives a unique invisible identification. ADVERTISEMENT A rare and precious violin, such as a Stradivarius can cost as much as a mansion. But even amateur musicians form a strong bond with their guitar, clarinet or bass and it's a very emotional experience to have a musical instrument broken, damaged or stolen.
Feb-29-2008
Philip Glass Falls for $650,000 Cello, Discovers His Inner Bach
Feb. 29 (Bloomberg) -- ``This piece can bring me the recognition that I'm actually part of an older tradition,'' Philip Glass said recently, perched on a sofa in his town house in New York's East Village. ``I've been associated with the downtown, needle-stuck-in-the-groove school for a long time. We're about to break a new barrier -- the barrier of the classical-music world.
Feb-15-2008
Classical music's Beckham suffers a crushing blow
Everyone hates falling down the stairs. It's even worse when you fall backwards down the stairs. And the one thing even worse than that is to fall backwards down the stairs on top of your million-dollar Guadagnini violin. This, of course, is precisely what happened to David Garrett this week, a model and violinist who somewhere, some place, was dubbed "the Beckham of classical music" - a moniker that's followed him through every piece of press coverage since.
Feb-14-2008
Russian businessman pays top price for rare violin
LONDON (Reuters) - A Russian businessman paid a record price on Wednesday for an 18th century violin that had not been played in public for more than 70 years. Maxim Viktorov, who bought the instrument by master violin maker Guiseppe Guarneri, paid "well in excess" of the previous world auction record for a musical instrument of $3.54 million, auction house Sotheby's said.
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