311-year-old Stradivarius violin sells for over $11M in New York

A Stradivarius violin crafted in 1714 sold for $11.25 million (£9.1 million) at a New York auction on Friday, missing the world record for a musical instrument that some predicted it might break, but still securing a solid financial future for a new generation of performers, Report informs via The Guardian.

The 311-year-old instrument, listed by Sotheby’s of Manhattan as “a masterpiece of sound”, once belonged to the celebrated 19th-century Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, a close friend of the composer Johannes Brahms. It was gifted to the New England Conservatory in 2015 following the death of its most recent owner, a former student, Si-Hon Ma, with the understanding it would one day be sold to fund musical scholarships.

The winning bid for the so-called Joachim-Ma Stradivarius was almost $5 million short of the record $15.9 million (then £9.8 million) paid in 2011 for the Lady Blunt Stradivarius named for Lord Byron’s daughter, a boundary it had been expected to test.

The money will be used primarily to fund an endowment at the Boston musical college providing scholarships for aspiring young violinists. Andrea Kalyn, president of the conservatory, said the instrument had been a prized possession, and that a handful of students had enjoyed the privilege of playing it, but the school ultimately felt the time was right to sell.