Pictured: Professor Mateja Marinkovic, a former Royal Academy of Music associate
A suburban music teacher has won her court battle against a world-renowned classical musician over an £80,000 antique violin he allegedly offered to buy from her with cash hidden inside a piano in Belgrade.
Ruzica West, 38, sued Royal Academy violinist Professor Mateja Marinkovic for breach of contract after she sold her 250-year-old violin to him below its estimated value.
She decided to sell the precious violin after she became short of money in 2015 and had trusted Prof Marinkovic, her former tutor at the Purcell School for Young Musicians, to help her get the best deal for it.
Miss West had initially agreed Prof Marinkovic could buy the instrument, made by Italian craftsman Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi, for £40,000 plus £20,000 for a bow, as she wanted a quick sale to fund medical treatment for her jaw.
However, she pulled out of the deal when she was told that she would need to travel to Belgrade, Serbia to collect the £60,000 in cash, which Prof Marinkovic had told her was hidden inside a piano.
Desperate for money, she approached the professor a second time in 2016 and agreed to a deal for £40,000, including £26,000 in cash and the proceeds of the sale of another violin, made in France in the 19th century.
A court heard that Prof Marinkovic over-valued the second violin and led Miss West to believe it was worth five figures despite knowing it was worth just £1,500.
After Miss West, from East London, learned of its true value from an expert after the deal, she sued Prof Marinkovic for breach of contract and for leaving her £12,500 out of pocket.
At Central London County Court this week, Judge Ian Avent said the professor had short-changed Miss West and would have to pay her the difference.
Ruzica West (left with her mother Olgica West) was given the Landolfi instrument as a present by her grandmother in 2002, but decided to sell it when she fell…
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