Voila! Violin Stolen From Sleeping Owner in New York Subway Reappears
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A prized violin that was stolen while its owner snoozed on a hot subway train has been recovered.
"I'm of course overjoyed!!!," Tom Chiu, a Juilliard School graduate and founder of the avant-garde Flux Quartet, wrote Wednesday in an e-mail message about his Scarampella violin.
The violin and his backpack were stolen June 27.
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Chiu said it was raining that night and he went into a hot and humid subway station after a performance and fell asleep. When he awoke, he said, his bags were gone.
Chiu, who calls his violin his "heart and soul for the last 13 years," said in a statement that the violin and the backpack and its contents were turned in to the Metropolitan Transit Authority's lost-and-found, and an MTA official contacted him late Tuesday.
The contents included a violin bow that Chiu has used since childhood.
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NYC Transit did not immediately return a call seeking details about the recovery.
At the time of the theft, Chiu said the violin and bow "all have great sentimental value to me and are completely irreplaceable. I hope the person who has my violin will return it to me. I would be forever grateful."
Chiu did not say what the violin was worth. He said it had originally belonged to his parents.
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The violin was made by Stefano Scarampella, one of the most highly regarded violin makers from the early 20th century in Italy.