WASHINGTON (AP) — Philip Johnson was dying of pancreatic cancer when he brought his former wife, Thanh Tran, to the basement of his home in Venice, California. Under a tarp that was weighted down with bricks was a violin case with a combination lock.

He gave the case to Tran. He didn’t say a word about it, and she assumed it contained an antique violin that she had once bought for him.

It wasn’t until nearly four years later that Tran learned the truth: The case contained a famous Stradivarius that had been stolen from renowned violinist Roman Totenberg in 1980, likely by Johnson, who died in November

2011 at age 58.

Totenberg died the following May, at age 102. The last time he saw the Stradivarius was in 1980 when he left it in his office after a performance at a music school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Tran said her biggest regret was that she didn’t discover the instrument sooner and return it while Totenberg was still alive.

“I wish he would have told me before he died. Then I could have given it back to the Totenbergs,” Tran said in her first extensive comments since the violin was stolen. “I’m upset about that.”

Federal authorities gave the violin back to Totenberg’s three daughters, including NPR legal-affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, last week. Nina Totenberg said her father had always suspected Johnson of stealing the violin, but authorities didn’t have enough evidence to get a search warrant.

Tran initially hoped there was some explanation for why Johnson, who scraped together a meager living as a concert violinist for most of his life, had the Stradivarius.

“I’m still digesting it. It blows my mind. I’m completely shocked,” she said. “Maybe it was just sitting there and it was too tempting. That’s all I can think of.”

Johnson had once been forced to sell an 18th-Century German-made violin. In the late 1990s, Tran bought it back for him, paying about $4,500. She didn’t think he owned anything more valuable.

This spring, while she was doing some home renovations, Tran said she and her daughters got curious. She and her fiance pried the case open with a screwdriver.

“The violin looked magical but sad, with all of its strings busted,” she said.

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