Stradivarius reappears after being stolen during the fall of Berlin.
A Stradivarius violin belonging to the Jewish Mendelssohn-Bohnke family disappeared from the Deutsche Bank in Berlin at the end of WW2. In 2018, a similar violin appeared in an exhibition in Tokyo. Both shared the same dents, nicks, and size. The differences? Made in 1707, not 1709, and called Stella, not Mendelssohn.
“They obviously are the same,” protested Jason Price, the owner of the auction house Tarisio, where the instrument was once held. Tarisio specializes in string instruments. “When you look at the photographs side by side, you see the peculiarities of the wear patterns, the dings, the dents, the scratches … I don’t think anyone would have a reasonable case in saying they aren’t [the same instrument].” Additionally, both instruments were made at about the same time, and the dents are almost impossible to replicate. The date could just be a misreading of the worn label.
This illustrates the lack of records on most violins. Sometimes, the records are obscured on purpose. Here’s what the New York Times has found: The violin is owned by a Japanese violinist, who acquired it in 2005. The violinist, Eijin Nimura, serves as an artist for peace for the UN and probably gave it the name Stella. No one knows where he got the violin, but he probably had no reason to ask whether it was acquired legally. Despite cases of stolen instruments being sold for very high amounts of money, most artists do not feel the need to ask questions. This is amplified by the fact that even legally acquired instruments lack thorough records, so there is no way to know. If the person selling it to you acquired it legally, what about the person before that? Before it was with Mr. Nimura, it was in Tarisio, Mr. Price’s auction house.
Bernard Sabatier, a creator of string instruments in Paris, said he was presented the instrument by a Russian violinist in 1995, and was probably behind the change of the date. His certificate of authenticity stated the creation date as 1707, and Sabatier says he cannot recall how he found out the date. Carla Shapreau, a culture property scholar and violin maker, says that this could be a misreading of the worn label or evidence of tampering after the violin was stolen. The violinist decided to sell the violin to a Swiss Dealer in Rome instead.
Back in 1935, Franz Von Mendelssohn, who owned the Stradivarius and was an instrument collector, put it in his Berlin bank before he died. Three years later, because the Mendelssohn-Bohnke family was Jewish, the Nazis forced Mr. Mendelssohn’s bank into liquidation. I have not found any information about the family’s treatment, but I have reasons to think that they were treated inhumanely due to Nazi antisemitism. The violin was transferred to the Deutsche Bank, but was lost in the chaos of the Fall of Berlin. Although Soviet troops did try to keep the bank vault secure, records are unclear about whether the instrument was stolen before the Soviets entered the city. After the end of WW2, the family tried to locate the expensive violin, with little luck. Today, the Stradivariuses are worth upward of three hundred thousand dollars. One, also sold by Tarisio, sold for 15 million!
In the meantime, the Mendelssohn-Bohnke family will have to wait. It is a debatable question whether collectors with items stolen during WW2 should return them to the original owners. Most invest a lot of money in an item they thought was acquired legally. Should collectors be required to give up a million-dollar item, just because it was stolen from someone eighty years ago? And anyway, Mr. Nimura’s lawyers are stifling the investigation, saying, “We have no information regarding this, including any factual basis that any of your allegations would have any merit. Mr. Nimura is a bona fide purchaser of the instrument for valuable consideration. The instrument belongs to Mr. Nimura.”
Should we require records about an artifact’s history before you can claim to have a legally acquired artifact? And who do you think should get the instrument?