American Notes MYSTERIES

For half a century, Julian Altman played his violin at society functions in New York City and Washington. A consummate con man, Altman treated his violin the way he treated people: with little respect. Difficult as he was in life, however, Altman did not want to die without sharing his greatest secret. Before succumbing to cancer in 1985, Altman, 69, told his wife, "Look between the violin case and the cover, and you'll find some interesting papers," she recalls. There she found newspaper clippings reporting the theft of a Stradivarius violin made in 1713 from a Polish virtuoso in New York City in 1936. Altman's violin, it turned out, was the missing Stradivarius.

Altman told his wife he had purchased the violin for $100 from a "friend." These days a Stradivarius can command as much as $1 million. Altman's widow will have to settle for an undisclosed reward from the instrument's rightful owner, Lloyd's of London, which 51 years ago paid the violin's last owner $30,000 for the loss.