A Stradivarius which belonged to renowned violinist Roman Totenberg has been recovered after 35 years.
Totenberg left the violin in his office while greeting well-wishers after a concert in 1980 but when he returned it was gone.
Its case was later found in the basement of the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he taught. But Totenberg, who died three years ago aged 101, never saw the instrument again.
The trail went cold until this June, when his eldest daughter, Nina Totenberg, got a phone call from an FBI agent who said the violin was in federal custody.
"I really could hardly believe it at the time," Nina Totenberg said.
The violin, which was made in Italy in 1734, had surfaced in June when a woman brought it to New York to have it appraised. The appraiser contacted the authorities.
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