A German court on Thursday sentenced a 41-year-old man to two and a half years in prison for stealing a 250-year-old violin from a Berlin music academy in March.
The violin, made by Nicolo Gagliano in Naples in 1769, was worth more than 275,000 euros (297,000 dollars) still remains missing.
The thief sold the instrument for about 200 euros to support his drug habit.
The violin belongs to Germany and had been loaned to a student via a scholarship programme.
The thief and his accomplice were looking for money in the Berlin Conservatory in the city centre after unsuccessfully trying to steal a bicycle.
The court found the German man guilty of theft and ordered him to pay 275,000 euros in compensation.
The German man, who has a number of previous convictions, confessed at the beginning of the trial.
“I needed money for cocaine,” he said. “If I had found money, I would have left the violin.”
He sold the instrument shortly after the theft for 200 euros to a man he did not know by name, giving half of the money to his accomplice.
