New Jersey Symphony Orchestra - "Golden Age" String Collection

"Golden Age" String Collection

In recent times, the NJSO became known for its purchase of 30 string instruments, including several made by Stradivari, for its string players, purchased from the collection of Herbert R. Axelrod in 2003. Lawrence Tamburri, then the orchestra's president and chief executive officer, speculated that this purchase would help make the orchestra more of a tourist attraction. Neeme Järvi has stated that this was one major reason that he chose to accept the NJSO music directorship. The orchestra named this collection the "Golden Age" string collection, and had hoped that this acquisition would enhance the prestige of the orchestra, and attract increased audiences and donations.

However, this purchase ran into controversy after doubts surfaced as to the actual value of the collection. Axelrod had claimed their value at USD $49 million, and sold it to the NJSO for USD $17 million. However, it turned out that the $17 million value was closer to the current market value. Furthermore, newsreporter investigations raised doubts as to the complete claimed authenticity of several of the instruments in the collection. The later criminal charge and guilty plea of Axelrod for an unrelated charge of federal tax fraud caused embarrassment to the NJSO on this transaction. In spite of the unfavourable publicity as a result of this controversy, the NJSO had planned to retain the violins and not sell them, as of July 2006.

In April 2004, Simon Woods became the NJSO's president, after Tamburri had left the NJSO for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Woods himself left the NJSO in July 2005 for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The investigation into the Golden Age collection had occurred during Woods' tenure. The appointment of Gremillet as the orchestra's next chief executive after Woods was in October 2006.

In March 2007, Gremillet and the NJSO stated that, faced with severe budgetary fiscal and deficit issues, they would try to sell the Golden Age instrument collection. The original agreement with Axelrod was that the orchestra would retain the instruments for at least 10 years, but Axelrod gave his assent to allow the orchestra to try to sell them. The intentions were to use the funds from the sale of the instruments to retire orchestra debt and to build up the orchestra's endowment fund. The orchestra had stated that their ideal scenario would be that the collection would be bought as a whole and then lent back to the orchestra, but commentators noted the difficulty of realizing such a plan.

In addition, a Vienna actress, Kyra Sator, had alleged that she was the proper owner of one of the instruments in this collection and threatened legal action against the orchestra in February 2007. Gremillet stated that the orchestra would "vigorously defend our title to this instrument" and noted that it was "extremely puzzling to receive such a letter four years after the deal". As well, the Newark newspaper The Star-Ledger had reported that Järvi might reconsider extending his contract with the NJSO in light of this planned sale of the instruments. When asked about this in 2007, he stated: "It's very possible, but I haven't thought about it yet."

In November 2007, the NJSO announced that they had sold the Golden Age instruments to the American investment bankers (and twin brothers) Seth Taube and Brook Taube, along with a group of other investors, for USD $20 million and a portion of the proceeds from any future sales of the instruments. Part of the agreement allowed the orchestra to retain playing rights to 28 of those instruments for a minimum of 5 years.