This has all the earmarks of the classic white elephant kind of theft, whether its an artwork, famous jewels or a super-expensive and rare musical instrument, like this Lipinski violin. The thief either didn’t know what he had when he stole it, or knew what he had but underestimated ow impossible it would be to get rid of it and make anything like the value the instrument has from any possible buyer.The violin is now radioactive.The thief’s only hope is to get ransom for it, and thieves this stupid usually screw up that process too, and wind up getting nabbed,and going to prison.
I had a passin “acquAintance” with a guy in the early 70s who I assessed as a no-good, and found out 6 years later, had gotten a job in the shipping dept. at Chicago’s Art Institute and decided to ship a number of very
valuable paintings to nis own house along with the legitimate destinations
for other paintings. He then demanded a huge ransom payoff, made the even bigger mistake of showing up at the ransom rendezvous wearing. gun in his belt, immediately got arrested, and send to prison for years. When he was released he made the news again when he blew his brains out.
The other possibility is that the theft was contracted by someone who simply wants to have it. They'd have to keep it secret of course, for a very long time. This would be a wealthy individual, perhaps someone who has tried to buy it in the past only to find it not for sale.