Orchestra to sell its Stradivari, Guarneri instruments -- to gain stability
NEWARK, N.J. -- The financially struggling New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is selling its prized collection of "Golden Age" string instruments, four years after acquiring them for $17 million 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.
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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.