The Height of Violin Nerddom

The controversy continues over the authenticity of the 1716 "Messiah" Strad, said to be a fake by former MET Museum curator Stewart Pollens.

http://soundpostonline.com/archive/fall2000/page17.html

Long story short: there is a break in the succession of ownership of this violin, allowing time for a switch job; the date of the wood is contested; its internal features do not match early 19c descriptions by experts.

Pollens has supposedly become an outcast among violin luthiers for his claim, revisited in his 2010 book _Stradivari_. His reliance on dendrochronology (tree ring dating) led the editor of the above website to dub the controversy "tree ring circus."

And I thought *I* was a violin nerd...

We'll probably never know if it's the real deal. If it were up to me I'd start by playing all the world's known Strads then test it against them. That will cost time and money--another one for the "grant proposal" pile.