Stradivarius sells for $1.3 million at Christie's

May 5, 2000
Web posted at: 8:58 p.m. EDT (0058 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 300-year-old Stradivarius violin sold at auction Friday for $1,326,000 at Christie's East in Manhattan.

The buyer, who was not named, is a patron of the arts and plans to loan the instrument to musicians, according to Pat Steele, a spokeswoman for Christie's.

The price paid includes a premium of $126,000, which goes to the auction house.

The violin, known as the "Taft," was once owned by the brother of President William Howard Taft in the early 1900s. It was crafted by the famous violin-maker Antonio Stradivari, in the first year of his Golden Period (1700-1716). According to Kerry Keane, an expert in musical instruments for Christie's, the violin is one of approximately 700 instruments made by Stradivari that still exist.

Christie's had estimated the violin would sell for up to $1.5 million. This was the first time in five years that Christie's in New York hosted an auction of fine musical instruments.

Another famous Stradivari creation, known as the "Kreutzer Strad," was auctioned off in 1998 for a world record price of $1.6 million at Christie's South Kensington, London.

Friday's sale also included more than two dozen instruments from the Jacques Francais collection. Among them are the works of 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century Italian instrument-makers, including a violin by Niccolo Gagliano (1735), a violoncello by David Tecchler (1698), a violin crafted by the brothers Lorenzo and Tommaso Carcassi (1775), a violin by Camillus Camilli (1740), a violin by Guisseppe Rocca (1858) and a violin by Giovanni Grancino (1720).

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Christie's
Encyclopedia Smithsonian: Stradivarius Violins

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