On March 31st, 2026, Carla Shapreau, Senior Fellow at the UC Berkeley Institute of European Studies, Continuing Lecturer at Berkeley Law School, and Curator of the Ansley K. Salz Collection of Stringed Instruments in the Department of Music, presented a lecture entitled “The Nazi-Era Theft of the 1709 Mendelssohn Stradivari: A Case Study on Looted Cultural Property, Provenance, and the Law,” focused on her discovery of the famed violin, which was stolen in Berlin during the Second World War. Shapreau possesses extensive experience in art and cultural property legal research, and is also a violin maker and restorer. Associate Director of the Institute of European Studies, Dr. Akasemi Newsome, introduced the lecture, held in UC Berkeley’s Philosophy Hall, which explored the history and legal questions surrounding the Nazi-era theft of cultural property.
Shapreau began by displaying photos of the violin, and offered a brief introduction that connected the stolen instrument to broader legal questions about colonial- and imperial-era object losses, as well as society’s desensitization to the loss of cultural objects. She argued that cultural loss, such as that of the Stradivari violin, raises deeper concerns about how such property relates to nation-building, nationalism, and identity. Alongside the images, she pointed out distinctive marks, colors, and physical details that helped her identify the violin. She compared photographs from 1930 with more recent images of the violin in Japan, highlighting clear, exact matches. Shapreau explained that she discovered the violin through online exhibition photos in Japan, where it had been incorrectly labeled as a “Stella” Stradivari violin from 1707, making it an 83-year-old theft.
Later, Shapreau provided an overview of the Mendelssohn family history and their connection to music. She described how the siblings escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s and presented appraisal, authentication, and other documents to establish the violin’s ownership by Mendelssohn. During the Soviet occupation of Berlin, several lootings of Deutsche Bank occurred, which held the liquidation of the Mendelssohn bank. This resulted in the theft of cultural and artistic property, including Rembrandt paintings and the violin. Shapreau then discussed the decades-long search for the violin by Walther Bohnke, a family relative, who pursued leads across multiple continents.
The latter half of the lecture focused on Shapreau’s own research tracing how the violin traveled from Berlin in the 1940s to Japan by 2020. She presented documents showing falsified records that renamed the violin “Stella,”and constructed an entirely new ownership history. Shapreau reflected on the challenges of accessing these records, the legal barriers involved, and the difficulty of communicating with dealers.
In the final portion of the lecture, Shapreau addressed ongoing legal questions and broader themes surrounding cultural art theft, including new legislation currently awaiting presidential approval. She also discussed the complexities of determining rightful ownership and the challenges involved in returning the violin to the Mendelssohn family.