Caveat Emptor Stradivarius

Posted at 7:00 AM on November 5, 2008 by Gillian Martin

In a previous post, I shared an article that advocated investing in rare violins.

Well, that's not looking like such a great idea anymore. Two recent stories about dealers in fake fine violins have made the news in recent weeks.

Canadian violinist Joseph Tang was sentenced recently to 3 years in prison and almost half-a-million in restitution for swindling violin collectors out of thousands of dollars. (Read more about the scheme and his dramatic backstage arrest here.)

Then this week, Serguej Diatchenko, a Russian violinist working in Italy, apparently hanged himself after he was caught selling fake 16th- and 17th-century violins to his students.