Hopes that a stolen 300-year-old Stradivarius violin has been discovered in Bulgaria have been dashed, as the recovered instrument has turned out to be a modern replica.

The extremely valuable violin was stolen from internationally-acclaimed virtuoso Min-Jin Kym at a sandwich bar in London's Euston station in November 2010.

Following an Interpol alert, Bulgarian police last month seized a violin which they believed to be the stolen instrument made by the Italian artisan in 1696.

However, British Transport Police announced Wednesday that experts had examined the seized violin in the Bulgarian capital Sofia and found it to be a replica. Earlier this month it was reported that the missing violin might have been recovered after the gipsy gang boss tried to sell a Stradivarius to undercover police for around GBP 250,000.

"Experts examined the instrument in Sofia and it is thought to be a replica training violin, made in either Germany or the modern-day Czech Republic no more than 100 years ago," Detective Chief Inspector Simon Taylor, of British Transport Police, has said, as cited by The Telegraph.

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