Cambridge, Massachusetts. May 1980.
Roman Totenberg had just finished a concert at the Longy School of Music, where he was the director. He left his violin in his office and went to a reception.
When he came back, the violin was gone. The police were called, and the search began.
It was not just any violin. It was a Stradivarius, made in Italy in 1734 by Antonio Stradivari, the most famous violin maker in history. Only a few hundred of his violins are known to exist, and experts keep a registry of them.
This one even had a name of its own. It was known as the Ames.
Totenberg had been a child prodigy in Poland. He made his debut as a soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic at 11, and he moved to the United States in 1938.
In 1943, he bought the Stradivarius for about $15,000, a large sum at the time. From then on, it was the only instrument he performed with. He called it his musical partner.
By the night of the theft, he was 69, and the two had been partners for nearly four decades. He had played no other violin in concert. Now it had vanished from his own office in a single evening.
He offered a $20,000 reward for information, more than he had paid for the violin itself. The violin did not come back.
Totenberg believed he knew who had taken it, and he never changed his mind. A young man, an aspiring violinist, had been seen outside his office that night.