An emergency application to the National Heritage Memorial Fund is being considered.But time is running out. The academy must now rely on an unprecedented display of public generosity in order to ensure the future of the instrument lies in Britain.What is at stake is a violin that marked the turning point in the history of Western music. It offered the violin to the nation in lieu of £1.4m in taxes. The violin itself has been valued at £3.5m although it could fetch more than double that if it were to be sold at auction.The Viotti is on a par with the "Messiah", or Le Messie, Stradivarius in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which, the conditions of its bequest state, must never be played But the Revenue wants its money and wants it fast. Last week, for the first time in 200 years, the violin was played before a public audience, at the Dukes Hall of the Royal Academy of Music "It was magnificent.

Those of us that were lucky enough to be there had tears in our eyes," said Curtis Price, the academy's principal.The academy must now raise £1m before 31 March in order to add the instrument to its renowned collection at York Gate. There it will be available to be played by musicians under "controlled conditions" and remain on show to the public six days a week.The estate of the son of the last purchaser of the violin - which is donating the instrument on condition of anonymity - proposed a deal with the Inland Revenue when he died in 2002. There in the cavernous surroundings, vacated by Louis XIV for the splendour of Versailles, three reputations were to be made: his own as a musician; that of the violin as a virtuoso solo concert instrument, and the name of its maker, Antonio Stradivari. The violin he played that day at the Concerts Spirituel of 1782, has become the focus of an extraordinary campaign - launched yesterday - to keep what is now known as the Viotti Stradivarius in Britain. Of course I was in a state of utter disbelief."On coming back:"I don't think I can ever be back to normality and I'm still trying to work out what normality is. But what's kept me going is my faith and the thoughts of my children.".

When Giovanni Battista Viotti arrived at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, even a young man of his prodigious confidence and talent could not have known the impact his performance would have on the world of classical music. Never got a chance to say goodbye or a word to my wife or my children."On his release:"A major came along and he said I am here to inform you that the American government has decided to release you to the British authorities and any supposed charges have been dropped Simple as that. A black hood was put on my head, my hands were tied behind my back and my legs were shackled and I was carried into a vehicle .. and driven off. Mr Begg, Feroz Abbasi, 24, Richard Belmar, 25, and Martin Mubanga, 32, were questioned and released by police last month and are staying in safe-houses. Mr Begg was arrested in Pakistan by US security officers who raided his flat in Islamabad.BEGG'S VIEWOn being a "threat":"It's incomprehensible for me to think how they would come to the conclusion that I am a threat to Britain.