Musician pleads for return of stolen violin
A RENOWNED musician today appealed for the return of her treasured violin after it was snatched as she returned home from a BBC recording session.
Krysia Osostowicz, 56, who was taught by Yehudi Menuhin alongside conductor Sir Simon Rattle, said losing the 18th-century Francesco Goffriller violin was “like losing her voice”.
She was on the way back from a studio session at Radio 3 when she set the instrument in its case on the pavement to unlock her bike at Brixton Tube station at 7 pm on Tuesday. Ms Osostowicz, who founded the award-winning Dante Quartet and is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, said: “I put it down for a moment while I was rummaging through my bag, I looked up and it was gone.
“I panicked and I started running around looking for a police officer. There’s normally plenty around the station but I couldn’t find one anywhere, I was desperate.”
She reported the crime at the nearby police station and was horrified to learn the CCTV camera covering the spot where the snatch took place had been switched off.
Ms Osostowicz, who has recorded more than 30 albums and is due to tour Japan in the autumn, said: “It’s been like losing my voice. It has been the source of my livelihood for over two decades and I’ve played it every day for many hours, I love it.”
The mother-of-two added: “I keep getting this dreadful sensation that it is out there without me playing it. I got it just before my first child was born.
“It’ s by no means the most expensive kind of violin, nothing like a Stradivarius, but it has my sound — another violin just won’t be the same.” The instrument was in its brown case with three bows and a shoulder rest.
Ms Osostowicz posted an appeal on social media which has been shared by thousands of friends and fellow musicians. She said: “If there’s anyone out there that picked it up thinking it was a computer or something valuable it can be returned. That would be incredible, like getting a lost child back. I would never let it out of my sight again.”
Anyone with information on the instrument’s whereabouts can email findmyviolin@hotmail.com or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.