While police sought clues Friday in the theft of a rare 18th Century Italian-made violin from a church basement in Lisle, the owner fought back fears she’ll never see the instrument again or if she does, it will be damaged.
“It’s like somebody stole my sister,” said Pamela Bublitz-Snider, a performer and teacher who bought the instrument when she was in high school in 1981. “We’ve been through a lot together, that violin and I.”
The instrument, estimated by its owner to be worth more than $300,000, is light brown maple with the wood grain appearing in the image of a cross on the back.
It was stolen from a room in the basement of the First Congregational Church, 1006 Ogden Ave., on Wednesday evening, Bublitz-Snider said, while she was out making a brief dinner stop between teaching sessions. When nobody at choir practice or confirmation classes saw any strangers, she called police.
Deputy Lisle Police Chief James Kosatka said envelopes containing about $10 also were missing. The items probably were taken by somebody who didn’t realize the worth of the violin, he said.
Investigators have been canvassing pawn shops, music and instrument dealers, and other police departments in hopes of recovering it, he said.
The violin was made in Italy in the 1770s by Nicolo Gagliano, an early member of the family that made violins there for about 200 years, said Robert Bein, of Bein & Fushi Inc., a Chicago instrument dealer.
Gagliano violins are usually worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
“They’re very good professional quality instruments,” Bein said. “There usually are one or two of them in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”
Despite its value and delicacy, she takes it to all her lessons.
“I need to sound the best that I can,” she said. It’s always cased and belted onto her car seat when she drives, and in the winter she keeps humidifying devices in the case.
