Dartmouth Student Says 20K Violin Stolen

A story out of Dartmouth College, where one of the school’s students has had her valuable violin stolen in California. WMUR reports that Erica Buonanno loaned the instrument to one of her friends in California to use it for musical auditions, however it was reported stolen from a grocery store parking lot late last month.

This is no ordinary violin; it has been valued at approximately $20,000 and was made in the early 1800s in London. Buonanno told WMUR that its retrieval is very important to her, as she plans to pass it down to her children just as it was passed down to her.

The Buonanno family is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who returns the prized instrument.

As an aside, the key factors in identifying a violin’s value are type of wood, the maker, age, appearance, and condition and while many seemingly rare violins on today’s market may seem original, they may actually be fakes or copies, which stresses the value of Buonanno’s original instrument.