This 308-Year-Old Violin – Heard On The ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Soundtrack – Could Break A World Record At Auction

Topline

A 308-year-old violin that was performed on film music from Hollywood’s Golden Age – together with “Someplace Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz – may fetch as a lot as $20 million this summer time, which might make it the most costly instrument ever bought at public sale.

This uncommon Stradivarius violin, estimated to fetch as a lot as $20 million this summer time, is poised to … [+] break the file for most costly instrument ever bought at public sale.

Key Information

The violin was handcrafted in Italy in 1714 by Antonio Stradivari, the famed craftsman who made violins for the ultra-rich, together with King James II of England, King Charles III of Spain and Ferdinando de’ Medici, Grand Prince of Tuscany.

After passing by a number of collections within the nineteenth century, the violin was acquired in 1924 by Russian-American virtuoso Toscha Seidel, who hosted his personal radio present on CBS, the place he additionally labored because the musical director.

Seidel stored the instrument for practically 40 years, enjoying the violin on soundtracks for a number of Hollywood movies, together with, Intermezzo and Melody For Three.

Tarisio, a New York-based public sale home that focuses on stringed devices and bows, expects the violin to go for between $15 million and $20 million.

Previous to the June public sale, the violin, which is a part of a set in Japan, will likely be placed on show in London, Berlin, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York Metropolis.

Stunning Reality

Seidel gave violin classes to Albert Einstein within the Nineteen Thirties. In return, Einstein reportedly gifted Seidel with a pencil sketch depicting the phenomenon of size contraction within the physicist’s principle of relativity. Einstein’s own violin bought at public sale for $516,500 in 2018.

Key Background

Stradivari is believed to have made greater than 1,100 devices in his lifetime, however at the moment only about 650 remain, a few of that are held in museum collections and loaned out to performing musicians and orchestras. The “da Vinci, ex-Seidel” Stradivari may break the file for most expensive instrument set in 2011 by one other Stradivarius violin that fetched $15.8 million in a London public sale, in line with Guinness World Data.