Stolen Stradivarius recovered

Austrian police discovered the valuable instrument in a raid on a flat in the capital, arresting six asylum seekers from Georgia as suspects. . .

Musician Christian Altenburger said he was "overjoyed" at the return of the violin, which was found unscathed . . . "I never dared to hope that my instrument would be found so quickly," Mr Altenburger said.

The investigation led police to a Georgian gang wanted for 21 other burglaries, Major Manfred Briegl told a press conference.

"The fact that alcohol and clothes were also stolen from the flat led us to immediately rule out a contracted theft and reminded us of the operating methods of a Georgian gang," the leader of the search said.

While I'm posting on Cremonese violins, I might as well add a link to this recent NY Times piece:

A violin, it turns out, needs to be played, just as a car needs to be driven and a human body shooed off the couch. In this city that produced the best violins ever made, that job belongs to Andrea Mosconi. He is 75, and for the past 30 years, six days a week, he has finger-fed 300-year-old violins, worth millions, a diet of Bach, Tchaikovsky and Bartok. . .

Mr. Mosconi — who was born in Cremona, began playing the violin at age 9, studied violin making and went on to teach and perform — starts his work at 8 a.m., an hour before the museum opens. He stores his tools in a tastefully concealed closet: two bows, resin, baby-soft cotton rags and jugs of distilled water for the humidifier that keeps the air at the perfect moisture to preserve the instruments.

Getting down to work, he unlocks the cases and carefully removes each instrument. He tunes them, then plays each for six or seven minutes. He starts with scales and arpeggios, then something more substantial, on a recent day one of Bach’s partitas for the violin. Nothing less would do.

Posted by David on June 6, 2007 8:58 AM