Cue the unhappy violins.
An internationally-renowned Lengthy Island music retailer offered beneficial bass violins on consignment — and failed to offer the homeowners the thousands and thousands in proceeds, in keeping with a pair of lawsuits.
The devices included two bass violins and 43 bows estimated to be value a collective $1.5 million from the property of Marvin Topolsky, a longtime double bassist with the Metropolitan Opera who died in 2021. Topolsky labored for the opera for 51 years.
Along with the longtime musician’s devices, Kolstein Music in Baldwin and its proprietor, Manny Alvarez, allegedly took on consignment a Mateo Goffriller bass violin value $255,000 from a Japanese proprietor, Yoshio Nagashima, in keeping with a Brooklyn Federal Courtroom lawsuit in opposition to the shop.
One other Japanese citizen, Yoshio Aomori, consigned a Testore bass, a duplicate of a Testore and a Zimmerman mannequin bass bow with Kolstein, believed to be value $185,000, the homeowners mentioned in courtroom papers.
Andrew Wilson, a Massachusetts man who consigned a $60,000 Nicholas Vuillaume double bass to Kolstein, and Christopher Prepare dinner of Rhode Island, who put up an $18,000 Prague origin double bass on the store, additionally sued the enterprise in Nassau County Supreme Courtroom final month.
It’s unclear when the devices have been handed over to Kolstein’s, which is called the biggest double bass store on the East Coast “and possibly the nation,” mentioned lawyer Daniel Schiavetta, who represents the aggrieved instrument homeowners.
“They simply disappeared and Manny has not followed with inquiries,” Schiavetta mentioned of the offered devices.
A lawyer for Alvarez declined to touch upon the allegations and mentioned the shop proprietor would reply in courtroom.
