An 18th-century Italian-made violin reported missing earlier this week was found in an alley near the Manhattan bar where its owner had left it, police said.

Odin Rathnam, the first-chair violinist for the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, had been in New York for a meeting and left the violin, along with a borrowed viola, at Yogi's bar on the Upper West Side.

The violin, valued around $95,000 (U.S.), was made by Bartolomeo Calvaros of Bergamo, Italy, between 1750 and 1755; the viola belonged to a friend.

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Rathnam said he was "the luckiest man alive."

A patron at the bar, Noah Garden, told the Post he had "won" the violin in an impromptu fiddling contest at the bar. He said he pawned it for $600 but didn't remember where the pawn shop was, the Post said.

It was unclear how the instruments, which a maintenance worker found Wednesday night, wound up in the alley. AP