Posted on 02/09/2006 12:18:39 PM PST by Red Badger
An elderly Hungarian is set to become a millionaire after finding a priceless Stradivarius violin hidden above his chicken coop.
Imre Horvath, 68, makes a living from the poultry and egss he sells from his home on a smallholding, near Debrecen.
He believes the violin was hidden in the roof space by his musician father, Zoltan, before he went off to fight in the war.
Zoltan was killed in the war and never had a chance to tell his family where the instrument was hidden, reports Debreceni Napelo.
He built the house in the 1920s and lived there with his family until he was called up to fight, and never returned.
Imre said he had no use for the instrument, and had taken it to an expert in Debrecen to have it valued because it looked like it was particularly good quality.
He said: "They were very excited - but sent me to the capital to have their findings checked, and they confirmed the violin was made by the famous 17th century Italian instrument maker Antonio Stradivari.
"I was delighted but then terrified because I have nowhere I can keep the violin in my little house, I just want to sell it as soon as possible and put the money in the bank. Then I can relax."
Only about 650 genuine Stradivarius violins are believed to exist today and one recently sold in the US for more than £1million.
That took a lot of pluck.
Vintage instruments in general are a very lucrative biz these days.
An old fiddle plucker........
I know I am stating the obvious
Fiddle in the Coop....or roof or coop roof
I expect to see it on eBay soon.........
Wow!
chickens in the bread pan picking out dough ...
quite a nest egg. 1,000,000 british pounds is a lot of scratch
Zoltan, you mean to say his dad was the hound of Dracula...
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~parsoto/zoltan.html
The headline is good, I guess "Old instrument found in chicken coup" just doesn't sound right on so many levels...
LOL!!! Good One!.........
Yeah, but I thought it meant they had found the remains of a dead violin maker.
"A lot of chicken scratch from that old fiddle......."
Or chicken feed.
Good thing he didn't have a cigarette in his mouth when he found it. Try explaining that to an insurance adjuster.
"So, Mr. Horvath, you say you dropped your cigarette and that caused the fire. And you say you lost 20 chicken cages, 5 bags of feed and ..... a stradivarius????"
Alright, you guys, stop your fiddling around!
Chicken scratch is old Southern talk for chicken feed.......
Talk about a great retirement plan!
Hmmmm not making enough money off his chickens, so he resorts to violins.
If it had been a trumpet you would have said he was horny........
So I guess Violins actually pays.
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