1. Sonic Youth’s Guitars
lover of the rock set Sonic Youth were shock to see anonline letterfrom guitarist Lee Ranaldo in July 1999 complain that a thief had breach into the band ’s truck and slip its equipment before a fizgig ( warning : some NSFW linguistic communication ) . The slip goodness included everything from guitar to adenosine monophosphate to drums , although Ranaldo warn that some of it was “ mostly previous and either very change and/or f***ed up / beat up . ” Still , the circle was forced to buy all new equipment for the repose of their shows and transcription academic term .
tardily , some of the equipment has been coming back . In 2005 , two guitar were returned to the dance orchestra by a humans lay claim to be the nephew of one of the original thieves . And in 2009 , a Sonic Youth devotee in the Netherlands saw a red and orange guitar on eBay that looked like one of the steal instruments . He outbid the competition and post the news on a substance board with the title “ The OH MY GOD ! I corrupt ONE OF SONIC YOUTH ‘S STOLEN GUITARS thread . ” He contacted the band and returned the guitar , which was sustain to be Ranaldo ’s . There ’s still plenty of equipment missing , so buff should be advised to keep an eye out on eBay .
2. The Tubas of Los Angeles
banding teachers and schooltime officials are stick by a string of thefts in the Los Angeles area . The loot ? Not computing machine or money , but tubas . In the retiring year , there have been 23 tubas reported slip from L.A. schools . security department footage has even indicate thieves bring out in and specifically place tubas and sousaphones , get around anything more valuable or easier to carry .
Police have n’t been able to figure out what ’s behind the law-breaking spree . Some recollect the cat’s-paw are being sell for flake metallic element . But others say there ’s a prosperous black market place for the instrumental role due to the growing frenzy of banda music . Banda , a saltation euphony similar to polka , uses the sousaphone as its strong bass , putting the legal document in high demand . accord to theLos Angeles Timesa gamey - destruction bass horn sell for $ 5,000 , but a beat - up one steal from a school could impart in as much as $ 2,000 .
3. Stradivarius Violins
With just some 450 Stradivarius violins still around today , it ’s incredible to note how many have been stolen . For example , one violin , deserving about $ 2 million , was nabbed in 2010 from a London sandwich shop right under the nozzle of violinist Min - Jin Kym . The thieves were nabbed less than a calendar month later after trying to sell the instrument to a alien for around $ 150 ( they were seen in an net café calculate up “ Stradivarius ” ) . But the fiddle has not been found and research worker fear it is no longer in Britain .
Another overlook Strad remain MIA for intimately 50 years after being steal from the Carnegie Hall grooming room of Bronislaw Huberman in 1936 . It was only recovered in 1985 , when violinist Julian Altman made a dying bed confession to his wife that the violin he had been play for year was the same one that had been snatched . Whether Altman really call for it is still unclear ( he arrogate he buy it on the Nox of the larceny ) . It really marked the second clip that fiddle had been stolen – the first clock time , the instrument was recover a few years after . That fiddle now belongs to classical superstar Joshua Bell .
One of the more noted stolen fiddle may actually have never been stolen , but the $ 800,000 Duke of Alcantara violin did fall into a stunning possession struggle . The instrument was being watched by UCLA musician David Margetts in 1967 when it die missing while he was go errand . He says it may have been stolen or he may have left it on the ceiling of his car and driven off , but either way the violin somehow cease up on the side of the highway . The legal instrument was found and by and by passed down to a act of unsuspecting possessor until it cease up in the hands of musician Teresa Salvato . When a medicine hangout shop realized what she had , she and the university got in a lengthy lawcourt battle over the legal instrument before it was in the end returned . For more details , theLos Angeles Timestracked the instrument ’s absorbing course , although the story came before the last closure .
4. Rosanne Cash’s Guitar
To anyone , a guitar ratify by Johnny Cash would be valuable . But to Johnny ’s daughter , Rosanne , the guitar gift to her with a preeminence from her begetter was priceless . So she was heartbroken when she bugger off off a planing machine in 1979 and found out the guitar had not arrived with her . The guitar has not yet turned up , but Cash has n’t given up hope that it will be return , especially since it ’s inscribed to her and ca n’t be mistaken for another .
