“You played big and lost big,” presiding judge Claudia Moravec-Loidolt told the Vienna court on Friday. “But you showed willingness to accept the responsibility.”

At the height of his career Machold lived in a castle in Vienna and arranged the sales of violins worth millions of dollars made by Antonio Stradivari and other famed masters to clients around the world, with branches Zurich, Vienna, Bremen and New York.

Arrested in Switzerland in 2011 and extradited to Austria, the 63-year-old’s crimes included embezzling money from clients and obtaining millions in loans from banks using violins he did not own as collateral

His ex-wife and former mother-in-law were also given suspended sentences of 12 months in prison for helping Machold conceal assets from his creditors such as his collections of watches and cameras.

“I failed, and in my personal life too. I lost my beloved wife,” an emotional Machold told the court. “I cannot deny anything and for this I will be punished.”

AFP/jlb