Celebrated violist appeals for information in the case of the stolen bow collection

One of Europe’s leading violists has had his collection of violins, violas and bows stolen whilst he was on holiday.

Norbert Merkl has been the solo violist of the Munich Radio Orchestra for over 40 years and has a collection of 61 different bows. But these – which include an 1890 Sartory violin bow, a Pierre Simon violin bow and a Nicolas Maire viola bow - went missing along with a Francesco Mantegazza viola, an 1827 J.B. Vuillaume violin and an Enrico Marchetti violin.

Between them, the three stolen instruments and the bows have an estimated worth of over €800,000

Merkl is understandably upset. In an interview with The Strad, he said: “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.”

That was six weeks ago and with no leads go on, Merkl has gone public in a bid to get his precious instruments and bows back. He’s offering a reward of €50,000 for any information leading to his collection’s recovery.

The collection was stolen from his apartment, which is at Weiherweg 4, 82194 Gröbenzell, Germany. So if you did see a safe being loaded onto a hand truck in Gröbenzell on the night of the 18^th, or have any other info, Merkl can be contacted at n.merkl@web.de