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Stradivarius violin perished in a Hollywood Hills fire.News: Is this real?
Did anyone hear about this story? I didn't hear much about it on the news but apparently a Stradivarius violin and other priceless art was lost in a fire in Hollywood last week.
From Bob Annis
Posted on September 20, 2009 at 08:41 PM Real? Who knows? Maybe it's an insurance scam, maybe the fiddle got torched. Apparently the owner escaped; too bad, we have a great surplus of lawyers, but not enough Strads. From Carol Cook
Posted on September 20, 2009 at 08:41 PM Hope it was an ebay 'strad'........insurance scam....something.... From Rosalind Porter
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 12:03 AM Hmmm. Does this look like a Strad to you? If I had one I'd have invested in a decent Musafia case (I think they do fire-proof ones on special order, don't they?) I'm sure one of our resident luthiers could make it as good as new though. http://www.insideedition.com/storyprint.aspx?SpecialReportID=3404 I don't know what anyone else thinks, but if I was lucky enough to have a $7million mansion full of objects worth another $7million or so, I'd have invested a bit of money in some kind of in-house fire prevention system - sprinklers or whatever... From Bob Annis
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 01:30 AM It's more or less criminally irresponsible not to keep some of that stuff in a good fire safe. Certainly the violin would have survived intact. And yes, there are several ways to protect contents from fire, even if you exclude water sprinklers, which can do as much damage as the original fire. Insurance probably ran to nearly 1% of the insured value, or about 140K per year. (At least that's what I have to pay, and I don't have a Strad). A hefty sum, but far more than the cost of reasonable protection systems. From Caitlin McMillan
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 04:55 AM The media frequently makes errors... That violin looks like it's potentially restorable on some level. When my house burnt down last year they got the street wrong, the number of housemates wrong etc. My viola survived and is perfectly playable, it didn't look as intact as that one - fingerboard fallen off, belly lifted due to water damage etc. The ash & debris from opening the case (also a challenge) looks about right. It probably isn't even a real Strad, just an exaggeration by the paper. Who would keep a virtually priceless instrument in a case like that? At least it was sturdy enough to not be eaten by flames... From Kym Staton
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 07:56 AM Is it really that cold in Hollywood? That's some expensive firewood! From David Burgess
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 10:19 AM Rosalind Porter wrote: "Hmmm. Does this look like a Strad to you?" __________________ No, not from what I can see in the picture. From Royce Faina
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 02:33 PM The violin didn't look that bad in the pics. Of course, it could be a whole different story up close. From Marty Dalton
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 03:54 PM Yeah, I can't imagine a Strad being kept in a 2 cent violin case like that. I don't this it was a real Strad. From Marina Fragoulis
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 07:15 PM Oh good, I thought I was the only one who had doubts that it was a real strad. From Christopher Liao
Posted on September 22, 2009 at 02:39 AM It's Hollywood. They exaggerate. From Hansjürgen Kohlhaas
Posted on September 24, 2009 at 12:21 AM Exactly. The value they gave to a 150 y.old piano from Austria (a quarter million $) is ridiculous. It probably couldn't have been tuned anymore. Haj From SAM MIHAILOFF
Posted on September 24, 2009 at 01:57 AM EVERYONE'S AN EXPERT...not to worry; the insurance company will not part with their money too easily...if it is a fakee, I hope the guy goes to jailee From Eric Johnson
Posted on September 27, 2009 at 06:04 AM How many Strads are there left? Seems like they are all documented and known about and if one was in a fire it would be a bigger deal. |
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