The State - News from July 23, 1985

A 193-year-old violin valued at $25,000 was sold for $15 in San Francisco’s seedy Tenderloin District--to a man who returned it to its rightful owner. The instrument, handcrafted by Johannes Varotti in 1792, was stolen last Thursday during a symphony rehearsal at Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. The man who returned it asked to remain anonymous. He told authorities he bought the violin from a young man in the Tenderloin for $15 the same day it was stolen, and returned it when he recognized it in a newspaper photograph.