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Strads won't be going to Stratford

Those storied instruments won't be traveling with the Axelrod Stradivarius String Quartet to the Festival city this summer. The reasons why shed light on the rarefied world of priceless strings

By COLIN EATOCK

Special to The Globe and Mail

UPDATED AT 6:57 AM EDT Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

Like the best-laid plans of mice and men, attempts to bring a set of rare string instruments to Stratford, Ont., have "gang aglee." The efforts of Stratford Summer Music to bring the Axelrod Stradivarius String Quartet to Canada for a series of concerts have fallen through -- and have left the Stratford concert presenter and Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian Institution pointing fingers at each other.

The quartet's rare and precious Stradivarius instruments -- two violins, a viola and a cello -- are insured for $50-million (U.S.) and belong to the Smithsonian. The museum received them as a donation from the American instrument collector Herbert Axelrod six years ago and since then they have left the United States only once, for a 1999 concert in Toronto.

"I'm not exactly sure what hit us," says Stratford Summer Music artistic director John Miller on Tuesday. "There were circumstances beyond our control, concerning the transferal of the instruments from the one country to the other. Regrettably, there isn't a way we can get the instruments here."

Miller stressed that the scheduled chamber-music concerts will still take place from July 22 through 25 with the same performers and repertoire, but that instead of the Axelrod Strads, the musicians will play their own instruments. As well, he explained that the responsibility for negotiating transportation clearance lay with the Smithsonian, which was unable to make the necessary arrangements. "We couldn't live up to all parts of our agreement because we were waiting for information from them."

Gary Sturm, the Smithsonian's rare-instrument specialist, did not return repeated phone calls. But Smithsonian spokesperson Valeska Hilbig suggested the breakdown in the border-crossing process might have occurred in Canada. "I think it had something to do with arranging for insurance and customs forms," she says. "I'm pretty sure that was the responsibility of the presenting organization . . . to arrange." She adds: "They're one-of-a-kind instruments, but we do like to share them."

However, according to violist Steven Dann -- one of two Canadians in the Axelrod Quartet -- the Smithsonian has grown reluctant to let the instruments travel in recent years. "It's a huge bureaucratic undertaking to get them out of the museum," he observes. "It's always possible for plans to derail -- especially since 9/11."

A further complication may be the 77-year-old Axelrod himself. In April, the self-styled "tycoon," who made a fortune in the pet-products industry, was indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. Axelrod's response was to promptly leave the U.S. for Cuba, but on June 16 he was spotted at a German airport, where he was arrested. He's currently in prison awaiting extradition to the U.S. Even though Axelrod no longer owns the Strads, Miller suspects that his own problems trying to bring the instruments across the border may have something to do with Axelrod's recent escapades. "That could be a part of it," says Miller, "but I don't know for sure."

The Strads -- built between 1687 and 1709 -- are no strangers to intrigue. One of the violins, called the Greffhule, is thought to have been built for the King of Spain, but nobody is quite sure. And the other violin, the Ole Bull, has no known history before it was discovered in a music shop in Budapest in the early 19th century. The viola may have been smuggled out of France during the Revolution, and nothing is known of the cello before it arrived in England in 1800 -- although, like many Strad cellos, its size was altered at some point in its history.

If there's a silver lining in the current cloud of mystery surrounding the Strads, it's that investigations and publicity are shedding a crack of light on the secretive world of rare string instruments. The IRS investigation has raised questions about several Axelrod transactions, including his gift of Strads to the Smithsonian and the appraisal of that donation for tax purposes.

Curiously, the museum's own records, obtained by a Senate committee investigating tax shelters, variously suggest that the instruments are worth $20-million, $25-million, $30-million, $50-million and $55-million (U.S.). The Smithsonian has responded that the conflicting documents were "internal memos that were not meant to be official Smithsonian statements on value." Furthermore, the Smithsonian contends that it has never officially appraised the instruments, and has no legal obligation to do so.

So how much are they really worth? "I'd guess that $55-million is on the high side," says Jaak Liivoja, a former head of the music department at Christie's auction house in London, who now lives in Ottawa. "With $55-million, you could put together a far better quartet than what the Smithsonian has. If Antonio Stradivarius ever made a real matched string quartet, it would be worth an enormous sum. But the Smithsonian's Strads are not a real matched set." Liivoja is referring to the decorations on the instruments: The two violins are ornamented with inlaid ivory and ebony scrollwork, but the viola's decorations are less elaborate -- and the cello's scrollwork was added recently, at Axelrod's request.

Axelrod's contention that the quartet of instruments is worth $55-million is based on his claim that he once received an offer to purchase the quartet for that amount. But, ultimately, the value of rare instruments can only be firmly established when they are actually bought and sold. Remarks Dann, "It's whatever the market will allow. They're worth whatever someone is ready to pay."

Because the Smithsonian's Axelrod Strads were donated to the museum, and the Smithsonian has no intention of ever selling them, their value will probably always be subject to debate. But given the current atmosphere of anxiety that surrounds these instruments, it will likely be some time before they are heard in Canada again.