A gang of thieves who stole a rare £1.2 million Stradivarius violin from an internationally acclaimed musician here tried to sell it for just £100. Irish serial thief John Maughan snatched the 313-year-old instrument from South Korean-born violinist Min-Jin Kym as she stopped to buy a sandwich at London’s Euston railway station.
Despite searching the violin online, Maughan, 40, and his two teenage accomplices were so ignorant of its value that they offered it to a stranger in an Internet cafe for just 100 pounds, Blackfriars crown court was told on Wednesday.
But the man turned down the offer claiming that his daughter already owned a recorder, the court was told. Maughan and the two accomplices, aged 14 and 16, were arrested four weeks later following an appeal on Crimewatch and on Wednesday admitted a single charge of theft, the Telegraph reported.
However, the violin — one of only 450 in the world — has never been found and insurers are offering a £15,000 reward for its return. Referring to Kym’s plight, prosecutor Mark James-Dawson said: “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’s become more successful.”