The store’s employees didn’t realize how rare the instrument really was until they had already handed out the money. The employees at one…
The store’s employees didn’t realize how rare the instrument really was until they had already handed out the money.
The employees at one Massachusetts pawn shop just got a crash course in classic violins.
After the instrument was studied, it was found to be one from famed violin-maker Ferdinando Gagliano, made in 1759 and worth $250,000. Even just the violin bows were worth close to $18,000, the store manager told the news agency.
This is not the first time someone has stumbled into a fortune by accident. More than a decade ago, antiques expert Rick Norsigian came across a set of glass negatives at a garage sale showing Yosemite National Park. The man haggled to get the $75 asking price down to $45, and later learned that he had a goldmine.
The story had another strange twist, the newspaper noted.
“Despite the claims of the various paid ‘experts’ Mr. Norsigian and his attorney had hired to investigate the images, the art world was deeply skeptical as to whether the photographs really were the work of Adams,” the report noted “Several independent investigators claimed they were instead likely to be the work of Earl Brooks, a resident of 1920s Fresno who later became a moderately well-known portrait photographer in Delaware.”
That led to the estate of Ansel Adams suing the man to dispute the man’s assertion that the photographs belonged to the artist. Norsigian countersued for defamation, and the two sides ended up settling their dispute out of court. Norsigian could continue to sell the negatives, but would not claim they were the work of Adams.
Pawn Shops Buys $250,000 Stolen Violin For $50???????? https://t.co/oCGS0BlVCp pic.twitter.com/eOy7VDAa58
— Power 105.1 (@Power1051) July 29,2018
