The instrument was taken from a train carriage in northern Italy on Thursday 5 March
Violinist, composer and conductor Marcello Fera has reported the theft of his Eugenio Praga violin. The instrument was taken from a train carriage on Thursday 5 March 2025 at around 5.30pm. The train was travelling from Verona to Bolzano and it is likely that the thief exited the carriage at Ora station.
The violin was in a blue plastic case, also containing a silver-mounted bow made by Louis Bazin, although the brand is barely readable. The instrument was made by Praga in 1900 in Genoa, and has been played by Fera for 40 years.
Writing on Facebook, Fera said that photos of violin ‘havbe been published in various books and catalogues, and will therefore be very difficult to sell’. The police have been notified and he asks anyone with information to come forward. The violin was featured in the July/August issue of Archi magazine, and also in A century of Italian Violinmaking: Liguria by Eric Blot and Alberto Giordano.
Eugenio Praga made fewer than a hundred instruments in his career. This particular example is based on the 1743 Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ known as ‘Il Cannone’, the favoured instrument of Nicolò Paganini.
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