£110,000 of violin bows stolen as man sleeps on train

Musician Peter Oxley nodded off on the train and awoke to find his £110,000 collection of violin bows had been stolen. Mr Oxley, one of Britain’s leading bow makers and restorers, said the case containing the 11 bows was stolen from an overhead luggage rack as he dozed.

Most of the French and English bows were owned by collectors who had left them in his care for restoration or to see if he could find a buyer for them. The 1m long brown case is thought to have been taken by a thief who left the train at a station between Colchester and Norwich.



‘Most of the bows are incredibly rare. Some are documented with the best accredited certificates,’ said Mr Oxley, 49, from Oxford. ‘The thief probably thought it was a case containing billiard cues or perhaps a gun. My worst fear is that he will just throw them in a ditch.’ The oldest is a nickel-mounted bow made by Etienne Pajeot in 1820 and the most valuable a £35,000 Pierre Simon from 1870.

Mr Oxley took the bows on the 3pm National Express East Anglia train from Liverpool Street to Norwich last Monday after a lunchtime meeting with other experts in London. ‘It had been a rather long day and I dozed off around Colchester,’ he said. ‘I immediately told the guard when I realised the case was stolen.’ He is offering a reward of £5,000 for their safe return.