The article reports that cellist Mikhail Bereznitsky of the Moscow Soloists, led by Yuri Bashmet, had a unique 1733 Italian Santo Serafino viola stolen from his apartment. The incident occurred between 16:00 and 20:00 on a Tuesday; accompanying items such as bows, a vintage video player, a fax modem, and a microphone were also taken, while the violin remained. The instrument was on loan from a state collection after Bereznitsky won a competition in 1997, and there are concerns about the orchestra's performances being affected.
The Los Angeles Times article discusses Henri Grissino-Mayer, a dendrochronologist at the University of Tennessee, and his colleagues Malcolm Cleaveland and Paul Sheppard, who dating the top wood of the Messiah, a Stradivarius violin housed at the Ashmolean Museum. Their analysis estimated the Norway spruce wood to be from 1577 to 1687, aligning with Stradivari’s era and the instrument’s manufacture date of 1716. The study was presented at the Violin Society of America convention in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The Pocono Record reports that Dr. Henri Grissino-Mayer and colleagues dated the wood of the Messiah Stradivarius to between 1577 and 1687, supporting authenticity concerns. The instrument, housed in the Ashmolean Museum and valued at $15 million to $20 million, was examined in England after a 1998 report questioned its authenticity.
The Le Parisien article reports that the National Museum of Modern Art at Beaubourg will receive five new works by Henri Matisse (four oils and one charcoal drawing) as a donation in payment of estate duties from Marie Matisse. The total value of the donation is about 227.5 million francs (roughly 34.68 million euros), and the works will join Beaubourg's reserves before being displayed in February 2002.