Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 2

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To continue where Part 1 left off, this article will examine more of the NJSO Internal Review Report to help determine why the NJSO decided to buy the Axelrod string instrument collection. A Review The Short Version The Trustees responsible for the report, Bill Baroni, Alan Danzis, John Forrest, labored to produce a document that is concise and very easy to read; it says exactly what is needed without unnecessary pontification.  …

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Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 1

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Since publishing the last article about the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra instrument purchase a number of readers sent in some additional points of view, once came from a professional orchestra violinist (not in New Jersey).  They said that historically, the media may be a contributing reason for the decision to buy the instruments, “There is no doubt a better player is more important than a better instrument. Especially in reference to …

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Axelrod Collection Value Determined By Attitude

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The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra released a 66 page report from their Trustee Review Panel regarding the collection of string instruments purchased from Herbert Axelrod. The report will be examined in detail next week, in the meantime, here’s the initial paragraph from the report’s conclusion: “As emphasized earlier, the true value of the instruments for the NJSO lies in the attitude of the Orchestra’s musicians. The psychological boon to the NJSO’s …

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What Do You Do With $32 Million You Can’t Deduct?

 

The latest chapter in the “Made for T.V.” saga that is the Herbert Axelrod scandal was his pleading guilty last week to helping a former employee file a fraudulent federal tax return.

As part of that guilty plea Axelrod must file a 2003 tax form but is not allowed to claim a $32 million deduction for his collection of string instruments he sold to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.  The $32 million figure is the difference the $49 million Axelrod claims the instruments were worth and the $17 million he sold them for.

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Violin Turf Wars

Earlier in the week, I wrote about how the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra may very well have to submit their “Golden Age” collection purchased from Herbert Axelrod to a new appraisal and authentication process. In that article I briefly touched on the how the business of authenticating and appraising rare string instruments (violins, viola, and cellos) works in the music industry.  But today I’ll take a little closer look at that …

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