Stradivarius, A Risky Violin to Play

2017-05-09 String Instrument News

A celebrated musician who just finished his performance lost his millions of worth, 300-year-old Stradivarius violin in an armed robbery last January 14, 2014.

Frank Almond, the lead violinist of Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, was walking in the car park at around 10:20 pm when he was attacked by robbers with a stun gun and took away his borrowed and very expensive instrument. Almond was doing his Frankly Music Concert Series at Wisconsin Lutheran College before the incident happened.

It was a 1715 Stradivarius made by one of the world’s famous violin maker, Antonio Stradivari. The 5 million dollar violin was called Lipinski Stradivarius and is one of the 512 violins made by Stradivari who had survived.

Before this incident, one Stradivarius violin owned by a Korean-born classical musician named Min-Jin Kym got stolen while she was buying the sandwich at a restaurant in London. Good thing the instrument was recovered after three years and sold at an auction for 1.3 million pounds.