Why Jeffrey Epstein needed a cello

Why Jeffrey Epstein needed a cello

News

norman lebrecht

April 24, 2022

A New York Times business reporter has a strange story of how a vintage cello worth $165,676, by Ettorre Soffritti, came to be listed among the assets of the late financier and sexual predator.

Epstein claimed a musical background. He was once a student at Interlochen and remained among its benefactors.

He also claimed to have been a piano accompanist for the cellist Jacqueline du Pre.

Read the tangled tale here.

Comments

  • green knight says:

    “Read the tangled tale here”: if you’re prepared to subscribe to the NYT web site!

    • Rich Patina says:

      If you go up to the address bar and press the icon that looks like a book, it will take you to the immersive reader view which bypasses the paywall and allows you to read the article. This works on almost all websites with a paywall.

  • Helene Kamioner says:

    there is a lot more to this story which is full of holes

    • David K. Nelson says:

      That is what I thought when I read the article, and I knew nothing of the facts. Maybe if the article had been in the arts section different questions would have been asked (it was the business section). Epstein had the rare gift of making everybody who had the slightest connection to him seem suspicious and unlikeable.

  • Robert Holmen says:

    I’m not clear on the part where DeRosa feels insulted by the negotiated price of the cello.

    Was it too high?… Or too low?

    What is he getting insulted about?

    This is a story about how money talks. In any normal universe, in each of these encounters, Epstein would be dismissed as an absurd poseur, but in the universe where people are bedazzled by money… the politicians, the super models, the musicians… they always come around to forgiving him for whatever and he gets what he wants.

  • Kenny says:

    Why?

    “For the act.” — Lenny Bruce (re: Masked Man and “Silver”)

  • fflambeau says:

    The story is for pay only and likely not worth it.

    The man was a douchebag. What remains unexplored is how a poor man became a billionaire: sex, blackmail, spying, a mix of all?

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