$20,000 violin missing in School of Music thefts

An IU student's $20,000 violin is missing, along with nearly $2,000 of recording equipment and cash taken out of a dean's desk.\nThe School of Music sent an e-mail warning students about the security risk Monday, a little over a month after master keys from the School were reported missing.\nThe vintage 1899 violin, along with its $5,000 gold and tortoise shell bow, were taken from a locked practice room Oct. 2. When owner Shin-Young Kwon, a doctoral student, returned the next day the door was open and the violin was gone.\n The keys open rooms in the Music Annex, Simon Music Library, Merrill Hall and the Musical Arts Center, but the school has yet to change the locks.\nSchool of Music budget director Royce Deckard said the locks haven't been replaced because of the $30-40,000 price tag associated with replacing all of the jeopardized locks.\n"I think we've done everything we can do, and we're looking into the idea of re-keying all our buildings, which is a major cost," Deckard said. "The Physical Plant and a locksmith would have to go through an analysis, and that's a huge funding issue."\nSchool of Music administrative assistant Jennifer L. Naab sent the e-mail explaining the recent spree of thefts to music students.\n"We have notified both campus police and Physical Plant supervisors of the activity and they are monitoring the situation," Naab wrote in the e-mail. "Given these recent events, we recommend that you not leave any valuables in your studios or rooms."\nKarel Butz, a second-year violin performance graduate student, said the School of Music is generally safe, but the school's lack of action concerns him.\n"I'm disappointed and I think there are better steps in controlling what's locked and who is told what's going on," Butz said. "When I got the e-mail, my initial response was that the stolen things were taken from open rooms, but after I found out the doors were locked and something was stolen from a locked room I was extremely surprised."\nButz said if the School of Music would have informed the students, thefts wouldn't be as common.\n"I don't know what the reasoning was, but it seems strange they wouldn't tell us right away," Butz said. "If the keys are missing they should have changed the locks immediately and since this issue affects all the students they needed to be told sooner."\nSchool of Music Dean Gwyn Richards experienced the effects of these thefts first-hand when his office was broken into and an undisclosed amount of money was stolen. Richards issued a statement, but would not comment further.\n"We have been working with the (IU Police Department) and Risk Management offices from the onset of the thefts," Richards said in the statement. "The next stage in addressing these issues will be discussed at (today's) School of Music Council meeting and at the mid-day Student Representative Council meeting. Our future actions will be guided by the dialogue we have in these meetings."\nThe IUPD is investigating the money and violin thefts, along with the robbery of two video recorders valued at $909 and $1000, IUPD spokesman Lt. Jerry Minger said. The video recorders were also stolen from a building associated with the School of Music.\nMinger said suspects have been identified in the video recorder robbery, and the police are seeking leads linking those burglaries with the violin and money thefts.\n"The way we've had to address these problems is by giving extra patrols to the music buildings because they aren't as secure as they were before," Minger said. "You have someone wandering around out there with a master key intent on thievery. It's a pretty tough thing; you almost have to catch them red-handed."\n-- Contact senior writer Mitch Blacher at mblacher@indiana.edu.