The State - News from July 22, 1985

A discriminating thief sneaked into the San Francisco Civic Auditorium during a rehearsal of the San Francisco Symphony and stole a 16th-Century violin valued at $25,000, police reported. Also missing, they said, were three bows together worth $20,000. The report said the instrument was owned by symphony violinist John Konigsmark and had been left in a canvas-covered case, behind a curtain, while Konigsmark played a viola during rehearsal for a pops concert. The distraught 40-year-old musician said the purloined violin, made by Italian violin maker Joannes Varotti in 1792, was not insured.