MOSCOW, June 14. /TASS/. "A lawyer called the police representing a 78-year-old man. According to the attorney, his client said that his 17th century violin had been replaced with a fake one. The musical instrument was kept in his daughter’s flat on Maly Kislovsky Street. However, during a divorce battle, her husband had supposedly replaced the expensive violin with an ordinary one," the source said.

He specified that the official documents that prove the authenticity of the stolen violin had not been presented to the police. Moreover, the experts who studied the musical instrument said that its case had been made in the 17th century, whereas the violin itself had been made in the 20th century.

In its turn, the press service of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Moscow Chief Directorate confirmed that a report for stolen property had been filed with the police.

"On June 13, the lawful representative of an individual born in 1939 reported the theft of an expensive musical instrument from a flat on Maly Kislovsky Street," the chief directorate’s press service stated. The police report was registered in accordance with the procedures established by law and is being checked now, the police said.