Stolen Stradivarius violin is recovered after 35 years
WASHINGTON — Renowned violinist Roman Totenberg left his beloved Stradivarius in his office while greeting well-wishers after a concert in 1980. When he returned, it was gone.
Its case was later found in the basement of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass., where he taught. But Totenberg, who died three years ago at age 101, never saw the instrument again.
Totenberg thought he knew who stole the violin, but there was never enough evidence to pursue a suspect.
The trail went cold until this June, when his eldest daughter, Nina Totenberg, the legal affairs correspondent for NPR, got a phone call from an FBI agent.