Recovered 236-year-old violin plays music once again

The violin belonged to well-known violinist Roman Totenberg who sadly passed away in 2012 before the instrument resurfaced in 2015, some 35 years after it was stolen.

Violinist Mira Wang plays the Ames Stradivarius violin, that was stolen in 1980 from the late virtuoso violinist Roman Totenberg, in the borough of Manhattan in New York, US, March 13, 2017.
TRT World and Agencies

Violinist Mira Wang plays the Ames Stradivarius violin, that was stolen in 1980 from the late virtuoso violinist Roman Totenberg, in the borough of Manhattan in New York, US, March 13, 2017.

A priceless violin that was missing for decades has returned to the concert stage in New York. The 236-year-old Stradivarius, likely to be worth millions of dollars, was stolen from a renowned Polish violinist Roman Totenberg back in 1980.

The violin was found in 2015 and now it's making music once more.

"It means a great deal to me that I can use the violin, to be the first one who would bring it to the public," Mira Wang, one of Totenberg's students, said.

"There's a complication in the emotions, there's a pressure, there's joy, there is a lot of sorrow that he could never see this or hear this and I wish he was with us," Wang added.

TRT World 's Matthew Symington has the story.

Route 6