The Stradivarius in the Attic

In 2006, a music teacher in the Spokane, Washington area brought an old violin to an appraiser. It had been sitting in a closet for decades, used occasionally at family gatherings, once propped against a radiator to dry after a rainstorm. When the appraiser opened the case, his hands began to tremble. Inside was a 1723 Antonio Stradivari violin, one of fewer than six hundred still in existence, valued at several million dollars.…