VIOLIN MYSTERY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 805, 28 October 1929, Page 13

VIOLIN MYSTERY

VALUABLE INSTRUMENT LOST MISSING IN ENGLAND Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. A couple of years ago, Mr. W. 11. Spiller, of Wellington, died in Hobart, leaving his estate to his two sons, F. and W. Spiller and to a married daughter in Christchurch. The estate included several violins reputed to be of considerable value, one of the instruments being deemed locally to be either a Stradivarius or an Amati, which, if true, might have meant its value would have run into four figures. For the purpose of having the instrument examined by experts, it was sent to England. The mission was entrusted to the late Mr. A. D. Riley, who was leaviug for England on his own business affairs. Then the trouble began. When asked to declare its value to the Customs authorities at Home the price was placed at £2,000, which entailed duty amounting to £63. Whether this was paid is not clear, but it is assumed that the violin was released. Mr. Riley was then to have submitted it to London experts, but whether he did so or not was never made known to the owners, though they were not perturbed, as In due course Mr. Riley would return to New Zealand and report. But fate intervened and Mr. Riley died on the voyage out to New Zealand and the beneficiaries In the Spiller estate have been left completely in the dark as to what happened in England, as there was no mention of the violin or of any transaction in connection with it in deceased's papers. Positively nothing is known of its fate. A curious point in connection with the affair is that the violin was in the possession of Mr. Riley at Home and was regarded, temporarily at all events, as his property. The real owners cannot claim it save through the trustees of his estate.