Larry Sherwood:

>As her death approached, she became quite fearful that someone would try
>to steal the instrument.  There were very few people who had access to her
>apartment.  Sure enough, when she died, the violin had been switched with
>a garden variety instrument, and it was established that the switch had
>occurred in the days immediately preceeding her death.

This reminds me--not of that film--but of the disappearance of my
grandfather's (much less valuable) violin after he died, from a place it
had been left for safekeeping.  Perhaps a reason why I was never taught
the violin.

>friend of mine noted that if a violin is not played for a period of a few
>years, it can take a decade of patient coaxing to bring it back to life.

At the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, there are two valuable old objects,
one a Stradivarius violin, the other a stone associated with king Alfred.
One is genuine, the other a copy (substituted during WW II, for security
reasons.) Guess which? Not the one I would have chosen.  I asked if that
one were ever used in concert, as the Smithsonian instruments are and the
answer was, no, the donor/owner did not wish that...

Jim Tobin