FBI Seeks 300-Year-Old Violin Stolen From Car Parked Outside LA Home

LOS ANGELES, CA — The FBI's Art Crime Team on Thursday renewed calls for help tracking down a rare 300-year-old violin that was stolen from a car parked in the driveway of a Los Angeles home.

Authorities have unsuccessfully attempted to track down the instrument — a 1710 Amati violin — in an international effort after it was stolen from a Los Feliz home on Dec. 8, 2020, according to the FBI.

The stolen violin, crafted by one of the most important violin makers in history, sold for over half a million dollars in 2013 and was valued at some $700,000 around the time it was stolen, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The violin belongs to art dealer Rowland Weinstein, who had left the violin in his Tesla parked outside his Los Feliz home the day it was stolen. His car key had slipped out of his pocket and landed behind the driver's seat, which meant the car remained unlocked, he told the Times.

Assuming the key remained on his person, Weinstein thought the car would have been automatically locked when he went into his house. He intended to leave the instrument in the car briefly; when he came back outside he found the car gone, according to the Times.

“I’m responsible for a piece of history and that piece of history got away from me,” Weinstein said at the Time. “It’s so fragile. My biggest fear is that someone who doesn’t know what they have will put it in the wrong environment and it will get damaged or destroyed.”

Anyone with information about the stolen violin, is urged to contact the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office at 310-477-6565, another local FBI office, or the nearest American embassy or consulate.

Read more about the stolen violin at the Los Angeles Times.