Violin Einstein gave to janitor sells for £373k

A VIOLIN that belonged to Albert Einstein has sold for £373,000.

The physicist began playing the violin aged six, and it was said that playing the instrument helped him to develop his theories.

The violin was gifted by Einstein, pictured, to the son of a janitor, William Hibbs, while he was a resident scholar at Princeton University in the US. It had been made for him after he fled Nazi Germany for America in 1933 by Oscar Steger, a member of a symphony orchestra in Pennsylvania. He inscribed it with the words ‘Made for the Worlds [sic] Greatest Scientist Profesior [sic] Albert Einstein By Oscar H. Steger, Feb 1933 / Harrisburg, PA’.

No other violins owned by Einstein have ever come on the market, according to auctioneers Bonhams. It sold last week for £373,551.