A total of 17 rare instruments have gone missing recently. Included amongst the lost instruments were 5 Stradivari violins, 4 violins from Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, and equally rare violin bows. The total worth of all the missing instruments combined to an estimated £50m, or around $81.07m.
It was believed that these instruments were being stored at Machold Rare Violins, a company owned by Dietmar Machold. As a point of interest, Dietmar recently filed for bankruptcy and was arrested on charges of fraud.
Police said the violins are owned by big institutions that loan them to the world’s top musicians.
It is believed they were being stored and cared for by Machold at his company, named Machold Rare Violins.
The company was founded in 1861 as a manufacturer and has been in the family for five generations.
The disappearance of the violins comes after Machold fled the castle he lived in in Katzelsdorf, Austria, to Switzerland after he filed for bankruptcyand the fraud investigation was announced.
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