The $15.9m fiddle
The da Vincis of violins are fetching stellar prices. Chris Carter reports
The finest violins in the world were made by Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri in the 18th century, as any violinist worth their salt will tell you. The Italian luthiers were contemporaries and both lived and worked in Cremona, Italy, the preeminent centre of violinmaking. When touting one of their instruments for sale, auctioneers naturally reach for the superlative gold standard everybody recognises from the art world – the great Leonardo da Vinci. And so we have it: next month, there is not one, but two violins heading for auction, with both French auction house Aguttes and specialists Tarisio proudly proclaiming theirs to be the
“da Vinci” of violins in their respective June sales.
First up, on 3 June at Aguttes, just outside Paris, is a “Del Gesu” violin, made by Guarneri in 1736, at the peak of his career. The maplebacked instrument is one of only around 150 that Guarneri made during his lifetime – he was much less prolific than his rival, Stradivari, even if the quality and longevity of those violins are a match for Stradivari’s. “There are many violins, but this one is like selling a Rembrandt, a Goya, or even a Leonardo da Vinci painting,” Aguttes’ Sophie Perrine tells Reuters. It was bought around two decades ago by French virtuoso Regis Pasquier, who has played it at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Opéra Garnier in Paris. “For him, this instrument was perfect,” says Perrine. Aguttes has given its “da Vinci” a conservative estimate of €4m to €4.5m, but says it could sell for up to €10m.
No woodworm
On 9 June, musical instrumentsspecialist auction house Tarisio is selling its Stradivari
“da Vinci”. It was crafted in 1714, when Stradivari was also at the peak of his career during what is considered his decade-long “Golden Period”. Within this, the years 1713-1716 “are the epicentre”, says Tarisio’s Jason Price. Stradivari was at the “pinnacle of his powers”, with the best woods and varnishes within his reach. Nearing 70 years of age, Stradivari drew on a lifetime of experimentation to create “the perfect model, both flat and broad, with an arching that had been refined to perfection”. The edges of the one-piece maple back are “less wide, the purfling [decorative edging] is narrower and more compact and the corners are less blunted than other violins from the mid-teens”. Analysis has confirmed it is a “healthy instrument, free of woodworm and unencumbered by serious restorations”.
Tarisio is putting the Stradivari “da Vinci” up for auction with the added qualifier that it is also “exSeidel”. This refers to its previous owner, RussianAmerican Toscha Seidel, one of the greatest virtuosi of the 20th century. Seidel declared to The New York Times in 1924, shortly after acquiring it, that “we precisely suit each other, and I am convinced it is one of the finest examples of the famous violin maker”. He recorded several early Hollywood film scores with it, including from (1939). It is expected to sell for $15m to $20m, according to The New York Times, potentially breaking the previous auction record of $15.9m set by the “Lady Blunt” violin in 2011.