Korean violinist Min-Jin Kym had stopped for a sandwich and a coffee at a branch of Pret a Manger outside London’s Euston railway station before travelling to Manchester.  Hafid Salah, who was working in Pret at the time, said: ‘She and her friend were on computers and iPhones and not looking at their bags.’  That was unwise.

The next evening the thief went to an internet café and googled the word ‘Stradivarius.’  He concluded that the violin he had stolen might be valuable and he offered to sell it for $160 to the man sitting next to him.  The man declined saying that his daughter already had a recorder and didn’t need another instrument.  The police said the violin was worth $2 million.  One of the bows in the case was worth $99,000 and the other $8,000. 

The detectives took a look at the CCTV tapes recorded by the security cameras at Euston and spotted the familiar face of John Michael Maughan leaving the sandwich shop with a black rectangular case which he thought contained a laptop.  Thirty years old with 59 prior convictions, he was a slow learner in the art of successful petty thievery.  

He denied he was John Maughan when the detectives came around to pick him up again.  The detectives noted down his forty-ninth alias and arrested him anyway.  An unsympathetic magistrate sentenced him to four and a half years.  The violin, the case and the bows are still missing.

The British press was divided on referring to Maughan as a gipsy or, more politically correct, at least outside Ireland, as an Irish traveler.  Strictly, since he had been born in Dublin and traveled to London, no euphemism was necessarily involved.  The police took the traveler route.

Detective Inspector Andy Rose said the reward for the violin, insured for $1.2 million, was $48,000.  "We believe the items could still be held within the travelling community and it is also possible they will be offered for sale within the antique or musical trade, either in England or in Ireland.  It will prove difficult to sell as dealers would immediately recognize its unique label and markings.”

The red violin in the film of that name was handed down through several generations of gypsies in its 300 year career so if life follows art, the insurance company might be hung out to dry for a while.

The Symphony’s brochure designer also googled ‘Stradivarius.’  He noticed the same picture kept reappearing in the Google image library. A bit more googling surfaced the British newspaper stories that contained the picture.  He decided it made an interesting front panel.

If anybody offers you a heavily discounted Strad, please share your story with Scotland Yard’s Arts and Antiquities Unit.

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