Lost Stradivarius Violin Found, Returned By Good Samaritan

A lost Stradivarius violin was found and returned to its owner, who had absentmindedly left the priceless instrument on a Swiss train a few days before.

The Stradivarius violin was returned by a good Samaritan at Switzerland’s Bern train station’s lost and found, according to The Huffington Post.

The musician, who was not named, borrowed the violin from a friend and accidentally left it on the train in Bern. Transit staff searched with no luck, while authorities were called in to review surveillance tapes. Another passenger was spotted leaving the train at a different spot, carrying the lost violin.

The Stradivarius violin was found at the Bern station’s lost and found after authorities launched an appeal for help to locate the lost instrument. While its value is not known exactly, only about 600 of the violins made by Italian craftsman Antonio Stradivari in the late 1600s and early 1700s still exist today, making the instrument extremely rare, and expensive.

This is not the first time a Stradivarius violin has been left somewhere by its owner on accident, as a New York City cab driver found a misplaced violin in the back seat of his car and contacted the owner, Philippe Quint, to return the instrument, which was priced at $4 million, reports The Daily Mail.

In return, Quint gave the driver, Mohamed Khalil, a reward, and also treated him to a 30-minute private performance. In May, a Stradivarius cello worth around $15 million was reportedly broken during a photoshoot at the Spanish Royal Palace in Madrid. Scientists in Madrid have spent the last four years trying to discover what makes the Stradivarius violin sound so different from other violins.

Do you think the musician’s friend will ever lend his Stradivarius violin out again, considering what happened this time?