The troubled fortunes of the beleaguered New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the fall from grace of its former patron and philanthropist Herbert Axelrod have proved an ongoing saga. In September 2005, a jury found Herbert Axelrod (already in prison on criminal charges) liable for fraud. He was ordered to pay $20.3 million in damages and unpaid loans to Central Garden & Pet Company of California who had previously bought his business. In addition, Axelrod was ordered to pay the company $340.000 for damaged merchandise. In October 2005, after serving 15 months of his 18 month criminal sentence, he was paroled - but only after agreeing to post a $50 million bail bond. He is now believed to be living in Switzerland.

While few would grieve over Axelrod’s downfall, it is harder to dismiss the trials and tribulations bedevilling the NJSO, even though their dire predicament is far from unexpected. In 2006, the orchestra announced a six-figure deficit for that financial year (representing 10% of its total budget). Its executive director, Stephen Sichak, admitted publicly that it was still struggling to reduce its deficits and repay longstanding loans. Sichak announced the orchestra would cash in almost one-third of its $10 million endowment fund in an attempt to stabilise its finances. However, a new, heartrending twist ocurred in March 2007, when the NJSO’s predident and CEO André Gremillet announced it is selling the “Golden Age Collection”. The orchestra is now seeking buyers for all 30 stringed instruments originally purchased from Herbert Axelrod. The sale of the instruments is expected to restore financial stability to the troubled orchestra. In a press statement announcing the sale, André Gremillet stressed that he hoped the NJSO might find buyers, or preferably “one investor” who would keep the instruments in New Jersey and be prepared to lend them back to the orchestra.

Meanwhile, an Austrian woman, 40 year-old artist Kyra Sator, is suing Herbert Axelrod’s former colleague, the international violin dealer, Dietmar Machold, who originally valued Axelrod’s “Golden Age Collection” at $50.000 million. Sator’s claim against Machold, which includes allegations of fraud and theft of her family’s violins, is lengthy and complex and has yet to come to court in Vienna. However, she alleges that she only recently discovered that one of the instruments in the “Golden Age Collection” - a violin appraised as the work of one of Stradivari’s contemporaries,Giovanni Baptista Rogeri - belongs to her and was wrongfully acquired by Dietmar Machold in 2002. In a recent letter written to the orchestra, Sator has threatened legal action against the NJSO if the violin is not returned to her . The orchestra has dismissed her claim and says it has no intention of returning the instrument. When - or if - Kyra Sator’s case against Dietmar Machold eventually comes to court, the validity, or otherwise, of her claim may become clearer. Until such time, the business practices of the world’s leading violin dealers continue to fuel yet more controversy and speculation among experts in the field.

Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark