Albert Einstein's Violin Sells for £860,000 at Bidding Event
A violin once in the possession of the renowned physicist has fetched £860k at auction.
The 1894 Zunterer violin is believed as Einstein's first instrument while being initially projected to fetch around £300k during its under the hammer in South Cerney, Gloucestershire.
A book on philosophy which the physicist gave to a colleague also sold for £2,200.
The prices will include a further 26.4% commission added to them, meaning the final price for the instrument will exceed £1m.
Auctioneers estimate that after the commission are applied, this auction might represent the record for an instrument not previously owned by a professional musician or made by Stradivarius – while the previous record being held by an instrument which was possibly performed aboard the Titanic.
A bike saddle also belonging by Einstein did not sell at the auction and could be re-listed.
All pieces offered for sale were given to his colleague and scientist Max von Laue in late 1932.
Not long after, the scientist departed to America to flee the increase of prejudice and National Socialism in his homeland.
The physicist gifted them to an acquaintance and Einstein fan, Margarete after twenty years, and it was her great-great granddaughter that has decided to sell them.
Another violin formerly possessed by the physicist, that was presented to the scientist upon his arrival in America in 1933, was sold during a bidding event for $516,500 (£370,000) in New York in 2018.
