A violin that belonged to the famous scientist Albert Einstein was sold at a tender for 860,000 pounds, according to the BBC.
Photo: Dominic Winter AuCeioners
The instrument, realized in 1894 by the clay Anton Zuntorer, is considered the first violin of the physicist. Prior to sale, the Dominic Winter AuCeioners auction house, based in South Cerney (Gloucestershire), had estimated about 300,000 pounds.
In addition to the violin, a philosophy book offered by Einstein to a friend sold for 2,200 pounds.
After applying the commission of 26.4%, the final price of the violin will exceed one million pounds, which could be a record for an instrument that did not belong to a famous violinist and was not created by Stradivarius. The previous record was owned by a violin who is believed to be on board the Titanic.
“It was a special moment. I had three auctions by phone who remained in the competition until the end”, said Chris Albury, a specialist in historical souvenirs at Dominic Winter AuCeioners, for BBC Radio Gloucestershire.
Albury added that few know about Einstein’s passion for music: “He always said that if he had not been a scientist, he would have liked to be a musician. He started studying the violin at four and sang daily.”
Among the objects for auction was a bicycle saddle that belonged to the scientist, but he did not find his buyer.
All the pieces were offered at the auction by the great-grandfather of Margarete Hommrich, an admirer of Einstein. The objects were initially given by the scientist to his good friend, the physicist Max von Lae, in 1932, before Einstein went to the United States, running away from anti -Semitism and Nazism in Germany.
Another violin of Einstein, received in a gift in 1933 on his arrival in the US, sold in 2018 in New York for $ 516,500.
