18-year-old Japanese woman loses Y8 mil antique violin on Austrian subway

Thursday 10th September, 08:32 AM JST

VIENNA —

Austrian media reported Wednesday that an 18-year-old Japanese tourist on a trip in August left her antique violin, made in 1792 and worth 60,000 euros (8 million yen), on the subway in Vienna. Police have attempted to find the instrument but have no clues or leads to what may have happened to it.

According to Kyodo News, the girl was riding the subway with another Japanese woman on Aug 6. She had with her a suitcase and the case containing the violin, but when she got out at West Vienna station, approximately 3 kilometers from the city center, she forgot to retrieve the violin.

The girl noticed the missing violin seconds later, but the train had already departed. The violin was made by Italian maker Antonio Gragnani.

Vienna police are currently searching for information on the passengers who were riding in the carriage with the two women that day.

News reports

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Latest 15 of 78 Total Comments Show All

animallover at 03:44 AM JST - 11th September

May be subway cleaning staff thought it was a piece of junk.
nimbus at 03:54 AM JST - 11th September

I bet she forgot her violin because she was too busy talking to her friend.
888naff at 06:48 AM JST - 11th September

not many honest people going to hand it in etc in that part of the world .. wouldn't happen in Japan etc.

or do we all have to be so ill minded this days and maybe think its an insurance job etc.
Himajin at 10:00 AM JST - 11th September

I left my Selmer Mark VI on the bus once

gasps, faints :-)

And this made the news, why????

Only because she's Japanese, got to give the bashers something to do...

Great that she got it back.
Himajin at 10:03 AM JST - 11th September

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/lost-violin-and-owner-are-reunited-again/

Interesting article about expensive lost instruments, found it while looking for an article on this one being returned.
Himajin at 10:05 AM JST - 11th September

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/local/article/22221--man-finds-77-000-lost-violin-in-homeless-woman-s-shopping-cart
chotto at 03:48 PM JST - 11th September

The violin was made in 1792? It must be a hunk of junk. she was in serious need of an upgrade anyway

Please tell me you're joking / being sarcastic...
Lowly at 08:37 PM JST - 11th September

A 17 yr old prodigy-type friend of mine, when I was 17, ie long ago, was lent a stradivarius, the most famous kind of violins. I don't know its value, but he put it on the roof of his parents car when opening the door to get in. Then drove off.

The violin wasn't hurt, luckily. and they got it back. Artists are spacey sometimes.
Lowly at 08:38 PM JST - 11th September

ps and my friend wasn't jpns, we r americans
hanadecaka at 10:42 AM JST - 13th September

Its nothing for Japanese even they can forgot husband and children if they have money.She will not complain because she had nice time in hotel with another man becauuse of email facility given by internet provider inthe world without charging money.Thanks for government body of the worlds who does not know how to make revnue.
Himajin at 09:51 PM JST - 13th September

Gee that makes sense (rolls eyes).
Altria at 10:56 AM JST - 14th September

Good to hear she got it back!

The worst instrument loss story I've heard has to be Krystian Zimerman having his customized piano (which he performs on all over the world) destroyed by US customs because they thought the glue smelled like explosives.
helloklitty at 10:23 PM JST - 14th September

A violinist at UCLA borrowed $1,000,000 Strad and left it on top of his car. It was returned 20 years later.
mindovermatter at 08:43 PM JST - 15th September

The worst instrument loss story I've heard has to be Krystian Zimerman having his customized piano (which he performs on all over the world) destroyed by US customs because they thought the glue smelled like explosives.

Yea, but I'll bet they reimbursed him for the piano, at cost plus...

At least the Austrian Cops tried to do something!

I had never lost anything in 20 years in Japan, and the first time I forgot something, immediately remembering about my backpack, within 30 seconds after I de-boarded the train, I told the station staff, which happened to be a bunch of 20-something girls (working the station) they fiddled around for what seemed like 10 minutes trying to figure out what they should do.... Anyway, my bag, probably with $10,000 usd (had just returned from a business trip) worth of stuff, PC, Iphone, passport, cash, all my bank and credit cards.. etc... never turned up... 9 months now...

The JN cops didn't lift a finger... "Here fill this out and will call you if somebody turns it in...."

Worthless pieces of crap....

It could have been a million dollars in Negotiable bearer bonds and they still never would have even looked at the video footage to see who might have walked off the train with that bag...

Now I'm sure if my name was Nakasone or if I was a member of the diet and I left my brief case on that car, they would have halted the trains to retrieve that bag....

Bottom line, if you forget something of no-value, it will be waiting for you 6 months later at the last station on that line, but if it's worth anything more than 10,000 yen, forget about it... You'll never see it again... Yes, Here in Japan...
zaichik at 07:24 PM JST - 16th September

Vienna has a subway

Yup - nice small one with only 3 (IIRC) lines. Made the city wonderfully easy to get around when we were on a school exchange there when I was 16. Happy days....

Insurance

If it was insured for full value, while overseas, without a very high excess, and she's got a proper police report, then she'll not lose out financially, but that's a lot of if's . Plus there's the sentimental value of such a violin, not to mention the difficulty in finding an instrument of similar quality.

I once left my clarinet (comparatively cheap model as these things go, but would have been tough financially for Mum to replace it at the time) on the bus from Heathrow to Euston when I was 17. I had a lot of luggage on my way back from a school trip to Maastricht and it got overlooked in the hurry to gather everything together. I was distraught when I realised what had happened. I rang Mum to tell her the situation, and by the time she met me off the train in Liverpool, the clarinet had been found and was in the London Transport lost property office awaiting collection by my cousin, who worked in London. I hope things work out equally well for this young lady.