AP News, March 9th, 2007
The financially struggling New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is selling its $17 million collection of "Golden Age" string instruments, four years after acquiring them from a benefactor who wound up in jail.
The NJSO had hoped the 30 violins, violas and cellos made by such Italian makers as Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu would place it among the world's top orchestras.
But orchestra officials said the debt from the 2003 purchase hasn't been relieved by ticket sales or donations.
With demand for such instruments high, the orchestra expects to make a profit that would provide financial security, orchestra president and CEO Andre Gremillet said in Friday's editions of The Star-Ledger of Newark.
"It was not an easy decision to make, but it is clear to me and the board (of trustees) that we have to ... be responsible," said Gremillet, who joined the orchestra in January.
The orchestra paid $17 million for the instruments. At the time, philanthropist Herbert Axelrod said the instruments were worth $49 million. However, experts questioned that valuation and in December 2004 an internal orchestra panel found that for tax purposes, the instruments should be valued at the purchase price, not $49 million. The panel said the orchestra erred in taking Axelrod's word for the value, and not seeking an independent appraisal.
Since then, Axelrod served a 16-month federal sentence after pleading guilty in an unrelated tax fraud.
Axelrod, who had lived in Ocean Township and built a fortune by selling pet products, told the newspaper that NJSO board chairman Victor Parsonnet asked him to waive a requirement that the orchestra keep the instruments for at least 10 years.
"According to Dr. Parsonnet, they were going bankrupt, so what could I do?" said Axelrod, who now lives in Zurich, Switzerland.
He said their new deal allows him to match the price for one or all of the instruments and buy them himself.
Gremillet said he hoped the orchestra would find buyers who would be willing to lend the instruments back to the NJSO.
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