Musician’s priceless instrument collection stolen from apartment including 61 violin bows

23 September 2025, 09:58

The violist’s collection was worth more than €800,000.

A German violist has had his entire collection of string instruments and bows stolen from his home in Gröbenzell, near Munich in Germany.

Norbert Merkl’s collection consisted of one viola, two violins and 61 bows and was taken while he and his family were abroad on holiday.

Merkel has been the solo violist of the Munich Radio Orchestra for 41 years, and his collection of instruments features a Francesco Mantegazza viola, an 1827 J.B. Vuillaume violin, an Enrico Marchetti violin, an 1890 Sartory violin bow, a Pierre Simon violin bow and a Nicolas Maire viola bow. Just these six items have an estimated worth of around €800,000.

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He told The Strad: “My entire collection was kept in a 300kg safe that stood in my bedroom. While I was on holiday in Thailand with my whole family, my apartment was broken into on August 18 at around 2:15 a.m., and the safe with its contents was stolen.

“According to the criminal police, the safe was most likely transported away by three men using a hand truck via an external staircase and loaded into a small truck. The perpetrators left the hand truck behind in the garden.”

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All of the certificates and valuation reports for each instrument were also kept in the safe.

Merkl is offering a reward of €50,000 for information leading to the collection’s recovery.