The New Jersey Symphony has pulled off a deal to buy 30 priceless string instruments – including 12 Stradivari violins – for $18 million. It “is believed by experts to be the first time in history that any ensemble has purchased so many instruments from Italy’s Golden Age at one time – and that includes during the lifetime of Antonio Stradivari himself. Details of the deal are to be released at a press conference in Newark on Wednesday.”