Guarneri Violin Sold for Record Price
Published February 15th, 2008
A Russian businessman, Maxim Viktorov has paid a record price for an 18th century violin.
The violin, made about 1741 by the Cremona maker Guarneri, was sold in a private sale brokered by Sotheby’s. The violin had been owned by the 19th-century Belgian composer Henri Vieuxtemps and had remained in the same family collection for more than 100 years.
Sotheby’s described the undisclosed purchase price as “well in excess” of the previous record for a musical instrument at auction, the $3.54 million paid for the “Hammer” violin by A. Stradivari at Christie’s International, New York in May, 2006.
The previous auction record for a Guarneri violin was £572,000 at Sotheby’s in 1988.
The Guarneris were a family of violin makers in Cremona, Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
They are considered to have brought the art of violin making to its peak alongside the Stradivari and Amati families.
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