This tale reminded me of the Totenberg Stradivarius (also known as the Ames Stradivarius), stolen in the early 80s in Cambridge Mass. and recovered after the th

This tale reminded me of the Totenberg Stradivarius (also known as the Ames Stradivarius), stolen in the early 80s in Cambridge Mass. and recovered after the thief, a former conservatory student, died decades later and his wife (unaware of the provenance) tried to have it appraised (https://stringsmagazine.com/a-new-chapter-begins-in-the-tumultuous-life-of-the-ames-totenberg-stradivari/ https://stringsmagazine.com/a-new-chapter-begins-in-the-tumu...). The thief kept it hidden at first, but in the 1990s and 2000s was apparently performing with it in public.