$1.9 million Strad stolen while violinist checked her iPhone

[mrmando]

Story here. Makes those Loar thieves look like pikers! Unfortunately for this thief, a stolen Strad will be next to impossible to fence.

[John Flynn]

Story here. Makes those Loar thieves look like pikers! Unfortunately for this thief, a stolen Strad will be next to impossible to fence.

I think you're right if it were a common thief, committing a crime of opportunity. But I think a common thief would have gone for her purse. That would have provided instant cash without the hassle of fencing the goods. And an average violin would not bring all that much through a fence. I think it more likely she was hit by a pro, who knew who she was and what she had in that case. A pro would know how to fence the Strad., probably to a private collector. He may have had the deal set up before he did the deed.

Although I'm currently reading "The Complete Sherlock Holmes," so I may just be caught up in the moment!

[mrmando]

John, how do you know she wasn't wearing her purse? How do you know she had a purse? And finally, what exactly is the difference between a common thief and a pro?

My wife and I have been targeted by pickpockets several times in Europe (none entirely successful, thank goodness), so I can tell you from experience several things about pickpocketing:

(1) It's a crime of opportunity that doesn't necessarily involve clearheaded economic calculations. In fact, sometimes kids do it to entertain themselves, just because they can. Sure, cash is best (ask my father-in-law, who lost $2K worth of Benjamins on the Rome Metro), but pickpockets will take anything. In Paris a kid took the French-English dictionary out of my wife's backpack. (He might've had an opportunity to go for her camera if we'd stayed on the train longer, but the fact that the backpack did not contain cash did not dissuade him in the least. Lucky for us, he dropped the dictionary on the escalator on the way out of the station.) Also in Paris, someone came up behind me in Montmartre where I was listening to a street accordionist playing Bach's "O Sacred Head" and cut the strap on a shoulder bag I had just bought. There was nothing in the bag but a Rick Steves travel book, but the pickpocket didn't stop to make calculations before trying to take it. He didn't manage to quite cut all the way through the strap, so all he succeeded in doing was ruining my bag. The most ridiculous example happened on a vaporetto in Venice ... I was carrying my son in a backpack child carrier, and some snotnosed teenager came up and removed my son's sandal just for the heck of it. He got a good chewing out in Italian from a fellow passenger, and I recovered the sandal where he dropped it.

I know enough about traveling to carry my cash and passport in a pouch under my clothing. If you know what to look for, you can tell that I'm carrying such a pouch, and yet no pickpocket has ever gone for it. They'll generally want to go for easier targets. That's because ...

(2) To most pickpockets, staying undetected is more important than the actual value or nature of the goods. If you have a coat, purse or bag, the pickpocket will go for that rather than trying to reach into your pants pocket. If you have several items on you, the pickpocket will go for the one to which you are paying the least attention at the moment. If your violin is on the floor and your purse is hanging around your neck, I can grab the violin without being noticed, whereas with the purse I might have to cut the strap or yank it away from you, either of which carries a higher risk of detection.

I think it highly, highly unlikely that this was a targeted crime. If I'm a professional thief and you offer me, say, half a million to steal a $1.9 million Strad, I will go directly to Curtin & Alf, or someone else who makes good Strad copies, buy a copy for $40K, bring it to you, keep the change, and disappear. And there you are with what you think is a stolen Strad. You sure as heck can't tell anybody that you have one. Which means you can't seek any advice from any expert on how to protect your investment. You can't get it insured. And you can't have it authenticated. How many private collectors do you suppose there are who would take that big of a risk?

Another story attributes the theft to "three opportunist thieves." It happened in a train station, which is ground zero for your garden-variety pickpocket, and while Ms. Kym was with a friend. Seems to me a superthief, if there is such a thing, would wait and choose a lower-risk time and place with fewer potential witnesses.

[NoNickel]

If I'm a professional thief and you offer me, say, half a million to steal a $1.9 million Strad, I will go directly to Curtin & Alf, or someone else who makes good Strad copies, buy a copy for $40K, bring it to you, keep the change, and disappear. And there you are with what you think is a stolen Strad. You sure as heck can't tell anybody that you have one. Which means you can't seek any advice from any expert on how to protect your investment. You can't get it insured. And you can't have it authenticated.

Well, well, well ... someone has an devious mind. Where were you on the day in question MrMando?

[mrmando]

Not in London! And I can prove it.

Same deal with a Loar. Anyone hires me to steal one, I'll bring 'em a Cliff Sargent copy and let them try to figure it out.

[John Flynn]

You may be right, but I'm not convinced to change my thought on it. I saw on a website that there are 11 Strads that have been stolen since WWII which have not re-surfaced. I also read that the most common ploy in high-end art theft is called "artnapping." The thief steals the piece with the idea of negotiating with the insurance company for the safe return of the item. The reward publicized up front is something like the L15,000, currently offered for the Strad in this story, but when the item is recovered, the actual reward is never disclosed. More often it is more on the order of $100,000 or more.

[Bill Snyder]

All I know is that the lesson here is obvious - get rid of your iphones.

[Ed Goist]

If I were in possession of a $1.9Mil instrument I'd have its case handcuffed to my wrist at all times. It would either be:
A. In my hands while I was playing it, or
B. In its locked case which would be in turn handcuffed to my wrist (like those Halliburton cases in the spy movies), or
C. Locked away in a safe.

[mrmando]

The fact that those 11 stolen Strads haven't resurfaced doesn't mean they are in the hands of nefarious collectors somewhere. An opportunist thief in Los Angeles boosted a Strad cello in 2004, then threw it in a dumpster, where a woman just happened to find it ... which makes you wonder how many stolen Strads were simply ditched by the thieves and ended up in landfills.

The circumstances of your average high-end art theft are completely unlike those of this stolen-Strad incident. If you are going to steal a valuable painting, you find out where it is kept and then figure out a way to take it without being caught. You don't hang around a sandwich shop and wait for the owner of a Rembrandt to leave it unattended on the floor.

[journeybear]

I don't think that's what John was suggesting, but rather that the thief had been following the violin waiting for the right moment to strike and saw an opportunity present itself in the sandwich shop. Without knowing all the particulars all one can do is engage in conjecture, and who's to say which theory is most valid?

[mrmando]

John is suggesting that his theory, of this being a professional grab for a private collector, is "more likely" than its being a simple crime of opportunity. I have no personal stake in which theory is correct. But John's theory focuses in on a single fact (the price of the violin) as if it were the most important factor in the case. It ignores other evidence about the circumstances of the crime and makes assumptions about the behavior of pickpockets that can be contradicted via simple observation. John's assertion that his theory is "more likely" carries a substantial burden of proof, which has yet to be met.

And I think Sherlock Holmes would say the same ...

P.S. London has more than 10,000 security cameras, and Euston Station has a bunch, according to the CNN report on this story. This traffic cam, for example, is just a couple of blocks from the scene of the crime. We'll see if any footage turns up.

[Knucklehead]

My guess is she was followed by criminals that knew exactly what she had and it's value. You would like to think that these iconic instruments are so well known that no one would ever think of buying a stolen instrument. You hear about valuables, artwork, jewels, instruments, etc turning up after many decades, that were stashed away in some obsessive collector's vaults.

[mrmando]

You hear about valuables, artwork, jewels, instruments, etc turning up after many decades, that were stashed away in some obsessive collector's vaults.

Please provide the details about where or when any stolen Stradivarius turned up after many decades in some obsessive collector's vaults.

Two of the more notable Strad thefts of the 20th century involve the Gibson Strad (now played by Joshua Bell) and the Duke of Alcantara Strad. Both of these were missing for a number of years; when they finally turned up, they were in the hands of ordinary people who happened upon them by luck and who had never sought to establish their value. I.e., not obsessive collectors!

Even if the thief did follow Ms. Kym for some distance, with the specific intent of taking the violin, that doesn't prove that he/she knew it was a Strad!

The theory that is the most likely to be valid is the one that takes into account all of the available evidence and doesn't make things up.

[journeybear]

Conjecture, speculation, theorizing - too much guesswork, unverifiable, and easily misleading. But when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

As much as I would like to think there would be enough security cameras at a train station to capture the theft, and then the thief, real life isn't as neat as an episode of CSI. Still, I hope this and/or other methods are successful in recovering the violin.

[mrmando]

You know, it occurs to me that if your job is to take a specific violin from a specific violinist, then possibly the stupidest conceivable M.O. is to follow her around all day until she sets it down and gets distracted. You'd have to figure that if she does neglect such a valuable violin, it will be for only a very short time. Which means you'd need to be pretty close in order to grab it. But of course, the closer you get and the longer you stay close, the greater the likelihood that she'll notice you.

My own London pickpocket experience serves to illustrate the point. I was walking through Leicester Square with my wife, carrying a shoulder bag on my right hip with the strap over my left shoulder. The bag was zipped but the flap was not buckled. The pickpocket was walking backward at my 5 o'clock, close enough to reach out and attempt to unzip the bag. I felt the slightest tug and turned my head -- and away he ran. I still had the bag and everything in it. How long do you suppose he was that close to me before I knew he was there? Not more than a minute or two. He had a very narrow window of opportunity. Since then, of course, I try to remember to buckle the bag as well as zipping it.

Ms. Kim may have afforded her thief a longer-than-average window of opportunity by getting wrapped up in her iPhone, computer, and cheese-and-pickle sandwich. But no thief could have predicted she was going to do that.

Further reading reveals that the theft happened on Nov. 29. The London transit police kept mum about the story until now. In one report, a police spokesman says they have leads in the case. In several other reports, there's a reference to a gang of three opportunistic criminals. The Guardian reporter positively sneers at the idea that the violin was targeted for theft by a collector.

So you tell me: Why are the police speaking up now after keeping silent for a week, and how do they know the number of thieves?

P.S. I have to agree with journeybear on "CSI" shows. Invariably the criminals they catch are dumb enough to commit their crimes in places equipped with really fancy, ultra high-resolution security cameras ... so that an investigator can zoom in on a blurry image captured in low light from 90 feet away, and identify the suspect by the gap between his front teeth. God help the CSIs if someone breaks into a place that hasn't upgraded its cameras for a few years.

[barney 59]

Back when Martin was making ABS cases that had MARTIN in giant block letters it seemed that when an instrument was stolen from where there were several possibilities(a bands instruments in a van or in a tent at a festival) that the one that said Martin was most likely the stolen item even though it maybe wasn't the best instrument in the group. The other most likely stolen was the one closest to the door. This would suggest that it was a crime of opportunity rather than someone stalking for a particular instrument. I would bet that the violin in question was in a very nice case. The woman carrying an instrument worth nearly 2 mil was probably dressed well, all indicating to a potential thief that there was some value there. If this was stolen as a chance encounter the thief now has a problem, getting rid of it after the theft made the paper. It seems that any place that has valuable items moving in and out thieves abound. Around here it's been bicycle thieves around coffee shops. Someone rolls in on their $5000 road bike and figures that their just going to step inside for a moment to get a quick cup of joe besides they can keep an eye on it through the window --and that's the last they see of their bike. Once some years back on a construction job in not a good neighborhood we thought it would be wise to get one of those giant Job Boxes, the kind that you have to carry with 2x4's like a sedan chair with 4 guys. We put 4 90lb. bags of cement in the bottom of the box and filled it with our tools,lots of heavy tools, and locked the box up before we went to lunch. When we got back the whole thing was gone!

[billkilpatrick]

nils tells a story about a band he was with who - instead of using a van with the band's name all over it, inviting thieves to have a look when unattended - drove around in a van marked "ira's diaper service." no problem ...

[Bertram Henze]

With an instrument that valuable, it should pay off to move it in an armored car between concert venues. Plus, the player needs a cheap copy to practise with.

If that seems absurd, imagine waking 20 times every night with a start in your hotel room, wondering if your million dollar instrument is still there. Values are a burden. Music should not be.

[Tom Wright]

In my understanding, from experience and reporting, most of these high-value violins are recovered after thefts. Perhaps some special angel unit follows distracted musicians around. Alexander Schneider famously left a Strad in a NY taxi, and he has lots of company in that maneuver. A close friend had a Vuillaume stolen, took charge by calling all the pawnshops in Northern Virginia, had it back in a few days.

My principal left the orchestra's Gofriller viola on the sidewalk---it walked away in a couple of minutes, but was recovered within a month. Yo-Yo Ma forgot his cello once, I think. It happens, but as has been pointed out, it's hard to sell one after you steal it. Unlike flat art, which some evil billionaire might wish to hoard, you can't get much pleasure from just looking at it or showing it to your friends.

[Rroyd]

Well, the Strad cello mentioned earlier in this thread was rescued after the craftsman that it had been taken to for conversion into a CD storage rack realized that this was not your ordinary cello, and helped to get the instrument back into appropriate hands. (It was on loan by its owners. I wonder if they chose to place it the hands of a different performer, with the hopes that it would not be left on someone's porch again.) I don't think, however, that a violin would hold enough CDs for that to be its fate.

[CES]

Martin, ya gotta think like the Godfather, man...stiffin' 'em on a 2 million Strad hoping they won't notice you gave 'em a copy will ALWAYS end up in a concrete shoes shopping spree...happens in the movies all the time

[Ed Goist]

Probably just a crime of opportunity where the thief didn't know what he landed...But who knows?

What if the thief turns out to be a one-time, impulsive fellow down on his luck who just happened to be in the right place at the right time when he was overwhelmed by a thieving impulse...Afterward, being wracked with guilt, but afraid of prosecution, he gives the violin to his 9 year old daughter (now living in a secluded part of Wales, with her mother) who has always seemed to be musically inclined, but never had an instrument.

The daughter takes to this wonderful sounding instrument immediately and it becomes her lifelong artistic companion and the joy of her existence. Throughout her simple, well-lived, generous life people repetitively comment how wonderful her old violin sounds, to which she always replies that she's so happy her grandfather brought it home to England from Germany after the Second World War...

At a ripe old age she passes it on to one of her Grandsons who also seems musically inclined...The Strad lives on in happy anonymity...beautifully touching the lives of many ordinary folk...

That's what I hope happens.

[journeybear]

...happens in the movies all the time ...

And as we all know, as it has been so noted many times before in these fora, life is just like the movies. I mean, these movies don't just spring fully formed from a will o' the wisp by a writer's fevered imagination. They are based on real life, and reflect the way things actually happen.

Ok, sarcasm aside, I like Matt's scenario. Throw in a mention of the original owner being adequately compensated, and we'll have a happy Hollywood ending. Perhaps even better, the owner's great-grandson becomes a world-renowned pianist who one day is contracted to accompany the thief's great-granddaughter. During the rehearsals a mutual attraction sparks, with the typical on-and-off fireworks. Then on the eve of the concert, the pianist recognizes a certain unmistakable mark on the violin, an anecdotal identifier passed down through the generations of that family. Realizing that fate has brought them together, he proposes on stage immediately following the performance (hailed by critics and all else in attendance as the greatest ever rendition of the piece, of course), she joyfully accepts, and they live happily ever after, bringing the most beautiful music to all the world for the rest of their lives. That would be a hit movie and possibly an Oscar winner.

Of course a TV series is spun off, that lives in perpetuity in syndication, and inspires a Broadway musical.

I don't mean to offend anyone, least of all the victim, and of course the happiest ending would simply be the return of the violin unharmed to its owner, but since none of us is in any postion to aid in that effort, might as well conjure up some other happy ending. I guess.

[mrmando]

I would bet that the violin in question was in a very nice case.

Nope, a "nondescript black case" according to several news reports.

The woman carrying an instrument worth nearly 2 mil was probably dressed well, all indicating to a potential thief that there was some value there.

I can't speak for how she was dressed. Of course, you could infer that she had disposable income from the fact that she had just dropped £2.95 on a cheese-and-pickle in a posh sandwich shop. Some folks who commented on the story at British newspaper Web sites seemed to think that was a bigger ripoff than the theft of the violin.

Well, the Strad cello mentioned earlier in this thread was rescued after the craftsman that it had been taken to for conversion into a CD storage rack realized that this was not your ordinary cello, and helped to get the instrument back into appropriate hands.

The craftsman was the boyfriend of the woman who found the cello. Neither of them knew what they had until they encountered a news report about the theft.

Martin, ya gotta think like the Godfather, man...stiffin' 'em on a 2 million Strad hoping they won't notice you gave 'em a copy will ALWAYS end up in a concrete shoes shopping spree.

That's why I won't do the job for less than it takes to change my identity and move to Aruba.

[John Kinn]

You may be right, but I'm not convinced to change my thought on it. I saw on a website that there are 11 Strads that have been stolen since WWII which have not re-surfaced. I also read that the most common ploy in high-end art theft is called "artnapping." The thief steals the piece with the idea of negotiating with the insurance company for the safe return of the item. The reward publicized up front is something like the L15,000, currently offered for the Strad in this story, but when the item is recovered, the actual reward is never disclosed. More often it is more on the order of $100,000 or more.

I think one of the eleven stolen Strads is in my possesion. I've looked inside it, and the label reads "Stradivarius Cremona". Maybe I'll put it in the classifieds.