Passerby on Bike Stole $3.5-Million Cello

The theft early last week of a $3.5-million Stradivarius cello owned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic sent a sour note across the classical music world amid fears that a sophisticated ring of bandits had made off with the 17th century treasure.

Detectives launched an international search for the instrument as aficionados from London to Hong Kong chattered about who might have the cello.

But on Thursday, the investigation shifted decidedly closer to home.

The Los Angeles Police Department released a videotape showing a young man on a bicycle, probably a teenager from the neighborhood, making off with the cello.

The grainy video shows the thief pedaling away with the silver cello case under his arm, then has the sound of him crashing into trash cans before getting away.

So instead of scouring the auction houses of the world, detectives are focusing on the Los Feliz neighborhood where the theft occurred at the home of the orchestra’s principal cellist. They plan to distribute fliers around the area and visit nearby John Marshall High School to show the video to students who might know the thief.

“It doesn’t look like a very involved conspiracy theory,” said Det. Don Hrycyk. “It looks more like an opportunistic thing.”

The cello, played by Peter Stumpf, is known as the General Kyd, after the man who brought it to England at the end of the 18th century. The British premiere of the Dvorak Cello Concerto was performed on the instrument in 1896.

It was taken early April 25 while Stumpf was with several other people at his Los Feliz home.

“He had come home the night before with the cello in hand. He put the cello on the porch, opened the door and forgot to bring it in,” said Police Cmdr. Michel Moore.

Stumpf was about to leave for an afternoon concert at Disney Hall when he discovered the cello was missing. Nothing else was taken.

“I was so bewildered and so confused as to how this happened,” Stumpf said. As soon as he arrived at the concert hall, he notified Philharmonic officials, who contacted police.

A colleague lent Stumpf a cello for the concert.

“I played the concert in a state of total disbelief and distress,” said Stumpf, who began playing the General Kyd two years ago when he joined the symphony.

“You develop a relationship with the instrument. You know it very well and can do more on it than someone who just picked it up,” Stumpf said. “I really feel a little impoverished right now not being able to use it.”

News of the cello theft quickly made its way around the classical music world. Famed instrument maker Antonio Stradivari made about 1,100 pieces -- harps, guitars, violins, violas and cellos -- only half of which are accounted for today.

At one violin shop in New York City, owner Carlos Arcieri said many customers came into his shop wanting to talk about the theft.

“They’re in disbelief,” he said. “They can’t get over it.”

Violin makers, Arcieri said, take a theft like this very personally. “The instrument is part of history. It’s just passing through our lives and will continue making history, so we have to respect it.”

At first, detectives thought they were dealing with a crack instrument thief who might keep the cello underground for years before trying to sell it or trade it.

Det. Hrycyk contacted Interpol. The FBI listed the instrument with auction houses and registries of lost art next to Picassos, Rembrandts and Elvis Presley’s high school ring.

But Hrycyk knew from experience that the best tools for solving the theft may be the musicians, violin makers and aficionados who work with instruments every day.

It was a musician, after all, who led authorities to a man in Honduras trying to sell a Stradivarius violin that was snatched in 1990 from a baggage cart at Los Angeles International Airport.

“The average person will not run into a cello and know a cello case when they see it,” he said. “But the people who do repairs, sell those instruments or play those instruments ... they’ll be the most reliable witnesses.”

Police received more than 40 calls -- many from musicians -- mentioning possible sightings of the 4 1/2-foot tall cello case.

But a break in the case would come not from a musician but from a neighbor in Los Feliz. And it would take the case in a completely different direction.

A few days after the theft, one of Stumpf’s neighbors told police that his home security camera had captured the crime.

The video shows a young man cycling up the street about 6:30 a.m., then going back to the house. Another frame shows him off the bike, walking toward the house and reemerging with a silver cello case. He gets back on his bicycle, grasping the case with one arm and trying to steer the bicycle with the other before crashing into some trash cans.

Detectives hope that neighbors or students at nearby schools can identify the thief. On Wednesday, the LAPD offered a $50,000 reward for the cello’s safe return.

“It’s a matter of whether it is still in the hands of the thief or if he has already passed it on to somebody more knowledgeable,” Hrycyk said.

In the music world, experts said it would be hard to sell a cello this renowned.

The General Kyd, made in 1684, was one of about 60 cellos built by Stradivari that still exist. What’s unusual about this cello, said Los Angeles violinmaker Margaret Shipman, is that it originally had five strings, rather than the standard four, and was cut down from a larger instrument. As a result, the cello’s scroll is longer than normal and its body is wider.

Arcieri, the New York violin maker, hopes he hasn’t seen the last of the cello.

A few years ago, when the Los Angeles Philharmonic passed through New York, the General Kyd came into Arcieri’s shop for an adjustment.

“It was a very good-looking instrument,” Arcieri said. “I just wish it will be recovered in one piece.”