Giuseppe Rocca Violin Stolen During the 1990s is Returned

Between the 1990s and 2000s, Italy’s Alessandro Scarlatti Conservatory in Palermo had a collection of 26 valuable musical instruments disappear, including a priceless violin. 

According to Palermo24H News, the 1861 “Giuseppe Rocca” violin was among the collection, protected by the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape and owned by the State. The violin was among four other instruments to be recovered so far.

Police commander Gianluigi Marmora safely returned the Giuseppe Rocca violin to the conservatory’s director Daniele Ficola, who has long been searching for the instruments.

The instrument’s return was presented at a ceremony where various authorities, such as the president of the conservatory, Mario Barbagallo; curator of the Musical Instruments Section of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, Giovanni Paolo Di Stefano; and director of the Livorno’s Pietro Mascagni Institute of Music, Renato Meucci, were also present. 

Meucci played a significant and decisive role in the violin’s recovery as he was one of the few to photograph and catalog all the instruments held at the conservatory in the 1990s. 

Barbagallo was part of instigating in-depth investigations into the missing violin — coordinated by the Court of Palermo’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. In 2020, further investigations proved useful, and after extensive evaluation, the violin was pinpointed and revealed to be in the possession of a violinist staying temporarily in Palermo and using it professionally.

Many technical investigations were performed by international expert luthiers, who confirmed that the violin was exactly the one stolen. Following multiple legal disputes, the instrument was ordered to be confiscated and returned to the conservatory. 

“The first important thing I did, after my inauguration as director in 2012, was to report the disappearance of a large number of important historical instruments owned by the Conservatory,” said Ficola. 

“With the help of my fellow organologists, a large part of this heritage was found," he continued. "In particular, this morning, the precious violin made by Giuseppe Rocca, one of the greatest Italian luthiers of the nineteenth century, the most important instrument among those stolen.”

“The [police’s] brilliant investigative activity has allowed us to regain possession of a precious heritage, which testifies to the important history of our Conservatory,” Barbagallo added, “We will organize a security system to prevent episodes of this kind from happening again.”