‘Rare’ instruments may not be authentic

NEWARK, N.J. – Five of 30 supposedly rare stringed instruments bought by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra for $17 million from a man now under indictment for tax fraud probably are not authentic, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Five experts contacted by The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark determined that four violins and one cello – among a collection purchased from pet-products tycoon Herbert Axelrod – were not produced by the master crafts-men named by Axelrod.

The experts made their appraisals after viewing photographs of the instruments, the newspaper said. One of the violins was wrongly represented as a Domenico Montagnana made in 1740, they said.

The “Golden Age Collection” of 30 violins, violas and cellos includes rare instruments said to have been made by such famed craftsmen as Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu in the 17th and 18th centuries. Axelrod had valued the collection at $49 million – a figure some say is vastly inflated.

The symphony’s official appraisal of the five instruments the experts examined is nearly $2.6 million. But the appraisers said the instruments are worth “a fraction” of that, though they did not give a specific amount.

Axelrod, 77, was indicted in April and fled to Cuba and then Europe. He was arrested in Germany in June and is jailed in Berlin pending extradition.