The Phantom Violins

Sidedoor

Smithsonian Institution

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4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Sidedoor listener Cliff Hall bought a used violin, he found a tattered note tucked alongside the century-old instrument. Obsessed with this cryptic piece of paper, Cliff’s quest to find the owner of the violin unlocked a tale of subterfuge, scandal, and the Smithsonian’s first donation of rare instruments.

Guests:
Deborah Shapiro, reference archivist at the Smithsonian Institution Archives, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Cliff Hall, violin teacher and freelance journalist

Kenneth Slowik, curator of the musical instrument collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; artistic director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is SideDore, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX, I'm Lizzie Peabody.
0:23.9	It was a pretty ordinary work day when a seemingly ordinary email hit Debra Shapiro's
0:29.2	inbox.
0:40.9	Debra works at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.
0:43.9	Fielding requests from curious members of the public is part of her job.
0:47.7	So off she goes in search of documents under the name Partello.
0:52.6	And this is what she pulled out.
0:54.2	Oh wow, this is a thick stack of papers.
0:57.5	Yeah, so when there is a thick stack with all the same number on it, it's like, there's
1:03.0	a lot going on here.
1:05.8	The pile starts with a note, a memo describing a phone call from a man named DJ Partello
1:15.3	to the Smithsonian, which was called the US National Museum back then.
1:19.2	Mr. DJ Partello called on telephone and said he wanted to present to the US National
1:24.8	Museum a collection of violins of the blank to the blank centuries.
1:31.4	It contained a number of violins made by Stradivarius.
1:36.5	Signed our Wrathbin, Assistant Secretary in charge of National Museum.
1:41.2	I like that Wrathbin left the blanks because he didn't actually remember what the centuries
1:46.0	were.
1:49.1	The violins, actually a variety of stringed instruments, dated from the 16th to the 19th
1:55.0	centuries.
1:56.8	There were 26 of these violins, including four made by Antonio Stradivari, widely considered
2:02.6	to be the greatest violin maker of all time.
	...

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