Thieves tried to sell Stradivarius for 100 pounds

Almaty. March 3. Kazakhstan Today - Thieves who stole a rare 1.2m pounds Stradivarius from one of the world's top musicians tried to sell it for 100 pounds, Kazakhstan Today reports.

It was not until they Googled the word "Stradivarius" that the thieves began to think the violin they had just snatched from a London sandwich shop might be worth something, The Australian reported.

The 300-year-old instrument was worth 1.2million pounds ($1.9m), but that did not stop them trying to sell it to a man in an internet cafe for a mere 100 pounds.

At Blackfriars Crown court in London yesterday, John Maughan, a career criminal with 40 aliases and more than 65 convictions but precious little experience of instruments from the Italian Master's Golden Period, admitted theft. He faces a jail sentence but the violin remains missing.

The Stradivarius was one of only 450 left in the world and it had, until that day last November, belonged to the South Korean violinist Min-Jin Kym, who will probably always regret stepping into a sandwich store at Euston rail station, in central London, to buy a 2.95 pounds mature cheddar and pickle sandwich.

Ms Kym, 32, was sitting with her cellist boyfriend when Maughan and his two young cousins, all Irish travellers, saw their chance.

Maughan, 40, used his cousins, aged 16 and 14, as decoys while he stole the case from her side. It contained the violin as well as two bows worth 62,000 pounds and 5000 pounds.

Hafid Salah, who was working in the sandwich store at the time, said: "I called the police and she was really upset and panicking, like someone who had lost something expensive. She looked like she was going to cry. We thought that maybe it was a computer, but a million-pound violin is something else - we had no idea."

Mark James-Dawson, for the prosecution, told the court that all three went to an internet cafe in Tottenham Court Road, central London, the next day.

"They were researching the word Stradivarius and 1696, the year the violin was made. We know this because a witness was on a computer next to them. They entered into a discussion and they all tried to sell it to him at a price of 100 pound. He didn't buy it because his daughter has a recorder."

The three were arrested four weeks later when Maughan was identified after an appeal on the BBC program Crimewatch. CCTV footage showed the teenagers carrying the case, which they claim was later stolen in a burglary at their house in North London.

Kym, who began playing the violin at the age of six and made her international debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra when she was 13, bought the instrument ten years ago for 750,000 pounds.

Since then, she has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras and is now signed to the Sony BMG record label.

Mr James-Dawson added: "This isn't a female with a monumental amount of money. This is her life, her profession. She is one of the top violinists in the world and she has this instead of a house, instead of a car, and she gets to a violin of this value by trading up as one would a mortgage as she has become more successful."

The instrument will prove difficult to sell for anywhere near its value as dealers would immediately recognise its unique label and markings, Daily Mail reports.

Insurers have offered a 15,000 pounds reward for information on the violin, which Ms Kym purchased for 750,000 pounds a decade ago.

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