[MSN] about theft valuable musical instuments: Time to Tie a String Around That Strad

[MSN]

Time to Tie a String Around That Strad 
By DANIEL J. WAKIN

They talk about these bundles of wood and string as if they’re an extra
limb, a repository of their DNA, a conduit to the very depths of their soul.

So why do musicians keep getting separated from their precious, often
priceless instruments? The answer could be simply that they are mere
mortals. But if that is the case, why does it not happen even more often,
given that musicians travel constantly and haul everything along except the
Steinway grand? Maybe the answer there lies in the extraordinary, even
paranoid behavior that musicians display toward the tools of their trade.
The latest case of separation anxiety was highlighted last week at a taxi
lot at Newark Liberty International Airport. A violin soloist, Philippe
Quint, played a thank you concert for the cabbies there after one returned
his $4 million violin dating from 1723, the Stradivarius known as the
ex-Kiesewetter, after a German who played it 200 years ago.

The tale was widely interpreted as that of yet another distracted virtuoso
forgetting — inexplicably — his instrument. Such incidents pop up regularly.
It happened most famously to Yo-Yo Ma (cello, taxi trunk), but also Gidon
Kremer (violin, Amtrak train), Lynn Harrell (cello, taxi again), and Peter
Stumpf (cello, front doorstep). The explanations include fatigue from long
travels, preoccupation, a simple mistake, the mere fact of being human.
In truth, Mr. Quint said, he did not forget the violin at all. He said he
had left it in the cab for safekeeping while he moved his bags from the
trunk to the curb near his home in Manhattan. He said that he had intended
to retrieve it but that the driver left before he could, possibly closing
the door to the minivan taxi just as Mr. Quint slammed the trunk. The
violinist recovered the instrument the next morning.
“It just happened in such a split second,” he said. “I heard the gas pedal,
but that was at the moment I was still walking to put the bags down. I’m the
most paranoid, neurotic person in the world. I’ve not only never forgotten
my instrument, I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything in my life.” The first
thing he does on waking up, Mr. Quint said, is to look at his violin case.